3
The Unspeakable Gift
"Alright," Mary answered them finally. "I—I will come back and help the wounded. But I make no promises after that," she said, speaking ostensibly to them all, but looking directly at Maurice.
The old Orangutan gave her a grave nod.
"That's fair enough," he signed to her sadly.
"Well, why are we still standing here?" Mary demanded. "If we're going, let's go then. Has Caesar moved the wounded? Are any of the females or children hurt?"
Having sneaked away from the group of females and young almost as soon as her Father and the males were out of sight, no mean task with Cornelia practically keeping Mary clamped by her side the whole time, Mary did not know the condition of that group.
"I don't think there are any serious injuries," Maurice signed as they began to move. "Just some minor scrapes, and some very old and very young are exhausted."
Mary ground her teeth. She gave an uncharacteristic low growl of suppressed fury. How could her Father have done all this? How could everyone's life get turned so completely upside-down in so short a time. Was it just a few days ago when the humans got their pretty lights back on, and things were looking so hopeful for them all, apes and humans alike?
Mary was so upset that she even entertained the unthinkable idea that it might have been her Father who shot Caesar. She had seen Koba and one of his friends start the village fires. Could he also have shot Caesar and blamed the humans?
Mary half turned to Blue Eyes and opened her mouth, ready to ask him that horrible question. But the distraught Ape girl could not bring herself to ask it. Even after all that she had seen her Father do, all the horrible cruelty and brutality to the humans that he both allowed and even participated in himself, she just could not ask that question. She was not sure she ever wanted to know the answer. Not yet, maybe not ever.
Blue Eyes gave her a questioning look, but Mary simply shook her head and said nothing at all.
They all moved on.
Just as it appeared Mary would meekly follow the males back to the main gathering of apes, she froze in her tracks.
"What?" they all started to sign at her, but she interrupted them with a horrified gasp.
"Oh, no! I forgot about—"
Whirling to one side, Mary suddenly broke from the three males and tore off in completely the opposite direction. How long had it been? Was she too late?
It occurred to her, even as she ran and jumped and swung in her near panic, that she might need help from these males. So, reluctantly, Mary slowed her pace, but not by very much, and looked to see if they were following her.
"Mary!" Blue Eyes and Rocket called after her. They all feared she had decided to bolt after all.
"Come," the young Ape girls light voice came back to them. "Come, please. Help?"
Maurice and Rocket both looked at Blue Eyes. They did not need to sign their question, both their faces said it all.
Blue Eyes simply shrugged. He had no idea what was going on. He usually did not know exactly what was going on with Mary. They did not call her Mystery Mary sometimes for nothing. Getting in to Mary's head was always Ash's department. Blue Eyes and Mary were good friends, almost like brother and sister, but as far as the young Ape prince knew, only Ash was her private confidant among the children. And Ash could not help them now.
And I did not help Ash, blue Eyes blamed himself.
As if sensing Blue Eyes' train of thought, Rocket moved beside the young Ape and put his hand on the boys' shoulder. He meant it to be comforting, but it only made Blue Eyes feel even worse.
Meanwhile, Mary was getting farther and farther ahead. The small slender Ape girl was so fast!
"You two catch up with us," Maurice signed to the other two. Before either Rocket or Blue Eyes could react, the old Orangutan left up, caught hold of a beam, and began to make good strides in catching up with the fleeing Mary. He soon left the other two far behind.
Blue Eyes blinked. It never ceased to amaze him how one of his oldest Uncles could move almost like a youngling when he wanted to.
Now that both Mary and Maurice were gone, this left him alone with Rocket, however. This made blue Eyes very uncomfortable. He could not really look at Rocket and not think of his best friend, Ash, and how he had failed Rocket's son.
"Guess we'd better hurry up," he signed.
Rocket looked for a moment as if he wanted to object, but at the sound of a distant call from Maurice, he changed his mind. The two males rushed forward, following Maurice's call.
Maurice caught up to a very distraught Mary. They were outside of one of the human apartments. The ape girl was hurling herself at a door which remained stubbornly closed.
"NO! He locked it!" Mary cried, beating her fists and kicking uselessly at the closed door. "He locked it!"
Putting his hands on the girls' shoulders, Maurice drew Mary gently away from the door.
"Stop that!" the old Orangutan gently admonished the younger ape. "You'll hurt yourself. Where are the keys?"
Mary gulped, tears sliding down her face.
"Daddy had them," she whispered brokenly. "I don't know where they are now!"
Maurice heaved a heavy sigh. He should have known. Now what was on the other side of this door that was driving poor Mary out of her mind with worry?
"Stand back, little one," Maurice told the ape girl.
Reluctantly, Mary obeyed.
Maurice hit the door as hard as he could a few times. It shook and rattled ominously in its frame, but refused to open.
Giving up, he turned back to Mary.
"I'll call the others," he signed.
"Others?" Mary tensed visibly.
Then, at Mary's sign of growing distress, Maurice went on quickly in his low rumbling voice, "I mean Rocket and Blue Eyes. Those others"
This seemed to calm the girl a bit, and Maurice sent out his summoning call to guide the other two to their location.
They arrived quickly, and Maurice directed them. It took four simultaneous hits by all three males together before the wood around the locks splintered with a sharp cracking sound, and the door crashed open. Wasting no time in explanations, Mary leaped over the debris and dashed in to the interior, leaving the others to trail behind her.
Mary ran to a small back bedroom of the human apartment. She went to a small enclosed bed in the far corner, bent down, and gently lifted something in to her arms. The something whimpered softly, and Mary made soft cooing noises of comfort.
It was a few moments before she realized that the males had followed her in.
Very slowly, Mary turned to her companions, and held out the tiny bundle. Turning back the blanket, she revealed the scrunched up face of a tiny human infant.
Rocket made a startled noise deep in his throat. Blue Eyes just stared in frozen silent amazement.
"What?" Maurice asked softly. "Where… Mary, what is this?"
"A human youngling," Mary said softly.
"How did you get her? Or him?" Maurice asked the girl even more gently. He approached and lightly touched the baby's head with his fingertips. The baby gurgled at him.
Mary was trembling now from head to foot, mostly from the effort of keeping her own emotions under tight control. She could not look Maurice in the eyes as she answered him.
"Daddy… he gave her to me as a…a…a p-"
Mary gulped, and looked down in to the tiny trusting little face of the newborn human baby girl. She just could not say it out loud, She could not force herself to say the word pet.
"Her Mother gave birth and died in the human's pen," she told Maurice haltingly. "I…I tried to save her Mother, Maurice! I really did try! But she bled too much. Then, Daddy took this baby and told me to keep her as a—"
"Alright, little one," Maurice stopped the girl. She did not want to say it, and Maurice was not sure if he could stand to hear it, either.
"I forgot all about her!" Mary said, her voice full of unshed tears. "After Dad…after Caesar defeated him, I forgot about her."
Maurice put his arm around Mary and the human baby.
"Blue Eyes, you stay here with Mary," Maurice signed. 'Mary, I am sorry, my d but, well, Caesar must know about this right away."
Biting hard at her lower lip, Mary nodded mutely.
Maurice gently guided Mary to sit on another small human bed in the room. Blue Eyes sat down beside her, and put his arm about her waist. The two young apes sat there in silence and Mary gently rocked the human baby as Maurice and Rocket left to find Caesar.
A/N:
Thanks to all my great readers. And a very special thanks to my reviewers as well, particularly TheOneTwoPunch. Thank you for that style description. Yes, Mary is a reference to the Firestorm character, Koba's first human caretaker.
I Hope you all liked this, and there is more to come. Please R&R. I welcome the feedback.
