Chapter 21

Lydia laid in the recovery room looking over at the very tiny form that now was on life support and struggling for his life. A part of her wanted to hold that tiny form because it was a part of her and her son, but another part was repulsed by what it was, the son of an Incubus.

He looked so pitiful with the tubes and small respirator that was helping him breathe. A hint of tears edged her eyes she turned away from the form. She heard them come in to wheel out his Incubator bed and sighed deeply. "Don't be too upset my dear, he would eventually do what his father did to you and all those other women."

This was the specialist that had been brought in to handle her case. She nodded slowly and sighed, "I understand but he seems so tiny and so delicate and so needy." She looked up at the doctor and smiled seeing a pair of very compassionate blue eyes and a soft smile to ease what discomfort she may be having.

"I know but he is a demon. Never forget that, what we will do is keep him alive and contained to Sector Alpha off colony." He was a young doctor and had been recruited because of his expertise and apparent ability to distinguish the difference between human children and demon-spawned children.

In this instance he had learned of a nest of Incubus males and had been flown in to deal with her pregnancy but then she had been detoured to the fourth hell and had been put on hold. When they had helped her escape and had gotten the demon run from the hell mouth under control, he had been brought in to deal with her pregnancy.

What he knew and Lydia did not know was as soon as she was strong enough they were going to wipe her memory of this incident. That way she would never know she had a child let alone an incubus' child. They had to locate Gerard and bring him in and under control or sequester him with his nest in the Alpha sector. Until then they wanted to allow her as much time as they could without the child or mother bonding to each other. "I understand your niece is recovering very nicely from her injury."

Lydia frowned, "What are you talking about? My niece? Which niece was injured?"

Doctor Lyons had turned away from her to check on the labs that had just arrived and was reviewing the results on a computer monitor. "Your niece Jeanette was attacked by a demon and had a trident run through her and it pierced her heart. If they had not reacted when they did she would have died."

Lydia was sickened at the thought of Nettie being hurt let alone being near to death. "May I see her?"

Looking up from his computer monitor and to his patient Dr. Lyon shook his head. "Not yet, she is still recovering and you are too, we did a C-section on you and you will be up and moving about in about three hours, by then they should have her in a room and then you can go see her."

Lydia relaxed hearing she would be able to go and see her niece. "Thank you."

Lyons shrugged his shoulders and said distractedly, "Don't thank me, we had decided that you both should see each other." His voice had been so impersonal and distracted that she felt rebuffed then as he turned he flashed her a brilliant smile. "Now back to you which you are my patient. I am thinking taking it a little easy for a couple of days a week of rehab and you should be right as rain again."

It was Lydia's turn to nod her head a bit distracted. "Thank you she spoke so softly he was not sure he had heard her.

"You are welcome now rest for now, you were under for a couple of hours and you really should allow yourself time to recover from the anesthetic that was administered for the procedure." He patted her arm and turned leaving her alone in the room. Out of instinct or a morbid sense of maternal instinct she looked at the place where the baby had been sleeping earlier and a feeling of aloneness and isolation filled her and she sigh and felt the tears come, she thought it best to cry it out to get over it.

She lay there another attendant entered the room and moved to her side. She was a young lovely looking blond that had moved to her bedside and smiled down at her. "How are you dear, I am Beth and will be your nurse during your stay here in med section."

Lydia nodded and watched her pulleout a syringe and inserted the liquid into her IV. "Now I need you to relax and let the medicine do its work, when wake up you will be just fine and you can see your niece."

The smile was reassuring and Lydia felt the rush of warmth in her arm and then she was asleep. Beth moved to the intercom, "Subject is ready for wipe." She stood back allowing the team to move into the room pushing several large pieces of machinery. Moving in tandem they made quick work of hooking the machinery up to Lydia's head and prepared her.

The matter took only a matter of minutes and it was over. Lydia lay serenely sleeping as sections of her memories pertaining to her pregnancy and Gerard were selected, and then blocked. The crew stepped out of the room taking their equipment with them.

Beth turned to the male attendant that came into the room, 'She is ready for a room, you an take her to 1405B." He nodded and unlatched the lock on the bed and wheeled her out. Making her notes on the computer terminal she watched Aden entered the room.

"Was it a success?" He looked around the room and then back to Beth.

"Yes, sir, she will not remember she was pregnant or anything other than Gerard Stiles is Quentin Collin's lawyer and left town."

Aden nodded, "Good, she is far too nice to have something like that happen to her. I am glad we got to her in time."

Beth studied her boss and smiled, "You like her don't you?"

Aden was taken aback by the question, "Of course I do she is one of our ops, why would I not like her?"

Beth sighed, "Sir, my I speak freely?"

He looked at her with intensity that would have put off most of his ops but thought to allow her a chance to have her say.

"Of course."

Beth leaned against the lab table, folded her arms and then crossed her ankles relaxing to the edge of the table. "I think that you have been tied up in this department so long you forgot what its like to have feelings other than as a boss. So, I am going to suggest that you consider that if you like Miss Patterson, you ask her out. Date her and find out if there is more to your feelings than just a concerned employer for his part time employee."

Aden felt the heat of his embarrassment slide up his neck. "You know you psyche meds are sometimes too smart for your own good."

Beth smiled, "Yah I know I get told that a lot when I am right."

From the deepest depths of her consciousness Jeanette could feel that she was hooked up to something she was just not sure what but she could feel the IV in her arm. Opening one eye she looked at the plastic bottle that hung from the pole and frowned, it looked like whole blood was being fed into her veins.

"What the hell." She muttered and then felt the pressure on her other hand and looked over at Radu, who stood at the side of her bed.

"Hello babe, how are you doing?" Jeanette smiled up at his concerned look he was bent over her bed and gently stroking her hair from her forehead.

"I am better now that I know you are going to pull through this and not leave me alone."

Jeanette looked confused, "Why would I do that? I am not going anywhere."

Radu looked deeply into her gaze and spoke softly, "My love do you not remember what happened?"

Jeanette shook her head and sighed, "I remember the tide turning and we had them on the run and I don't remember much else why?"

Radu felt he was in a bad dream and for the first time in a very long time the head assassin for Vlad was afraid. "My love, my precious one, you were dying after being pierced by a trident of one of the demons, it puncture your heart and you were bleeding out. They were trying to repair it when I came in and well my darling, we had use some of my blood to keep you alive."

Jeanette looked confused and exhausted. "Your blood to keep me alive?" Does that mean?"

Radu nodded, "For now yes my love you are like your father was and like I am. We are controlling your blood lust with a suppressant and whole blood transfusions. You are not totally an undead but close enough that you would be tempted to take a bite out of someone."

Jeanette frowned and closed her eyes. "Damn and here I thought I was going to go all mist and bat shit crazy for you."

She quipped but he could tell she was trying to hold her real emotions back over the control she had lost with her life and her body. Radu leaned forward and put a light kiss on her forehead. "My most precious love. You will not convert completely, but you will have residual problems from the introductions of my blood into your system. I guess now you can say we really are as one so with that in mind, Jeanette Naomi Collins would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

He held out a full caret diamond ring and looked hopefully into her gaze. Nettie smiled and felt the sting of tears that edged her eyes and she nodded slowly, " I would be honored to be your wife Radu. I would be more than happy to be your wife." He leaned over and placed a light kiss on her lips and smiled and with tender fingers slid the ring onto her finger and then kissed her hand.

"Now the only thing left is to make sure you are well enough to become my wife and the sooner I get out of here and let you rest the sooner they said they can spring you from this place."

Jeanette held onto his hand. "Not yet, stay long enough until I fall back asleep please."

She pleaded with him with her gaze fixed to his concerned look. He smiled and kissed her hand again, "How could I refuse you? You are my life, my heart and now you hold my soul in your hands my love."

Jeanette smiled and closed her eyes. "Good as long as you continue to remember that we will get along just fine. As a matter of fact you will make a wonderful 21st century husband."

Radu chuckled, "Don't go and get too cocky my dear, that might lead to one of our first arguments."

Jeanette laughed and sighed deeply, "And who is to say that we did not build our relationship on arguments maybe that is what keeps our love so strong and spiced up?"

Radu sat and listened noting that with each additional word she uttered she was growing tired and sleepy and he waited and said softly, "Sleep my love sleep."

Josette stood by as the clean up team moved in with flame throwers to burn the bodies that had stacked up in front of the cave that was the entrance to the hell mouth. Camron sat down on a pile of rubble and folded his arms over his chest.

"I nearly killed you." He stated it as if it had just dawned on him how close he had come to loosing her forever.

Josette took her gaze from the activity going on around them and nodded, "Yeah, you almost killed me but I had faith that you would come to your senses and realize what you were doing and not cut out my heart."

She knew deep down that he would have cut her heart out but was not willing to put him through that terror or thought that he had been vulnerable. She moved to slump down next to him sat and watched the clean up team.

"You know you love me right?" she glanced sideways at him and smiled. Camron nodded slowly and then turned grabbing her and pulling her close to plant a deep passionate kiss on her lips. Josette was startled at first then relaxed and locked her arms around his neck and returned the kiss.

"Do you think we can leave and continue this back in my apartment?"

Without preamble, Camron stood up, grabbed her close, and lifted her in his arms and teleported away arriving in her bedroom. Slowly he lowered her to the floor and let his hands run over and explore her body helping her out of her clothing. She in turn helped him out of his clothing and together they fell into her bed and made love.

The operations unit would have to wait for their debrief until they found and explored each others private most sensitive parts and rose the tides of passion to the extreme heights that they could find. At first their lovemaking had been fast and furious finding their passions pressed and reveled in the moment that they both had nearly come to and end of her life and his existence.

Then slowly becoming more secure in each other's arms their lovemaking took on a slower deeper passion as they continued to explore each other. The sounds of the outside world slowly disappeared and Camron locked them in a wizard's dome of solitude.

The frustration of the debrief team was in evidence while they continued to pound on the door expecting them to come to the door and turn them selves over for their process of going through a debrief. They knew it would take over five hours

. Just as Camron was determined that his time with Josette was not going to be interrupted the debrief team was equally determined to make sure that they did their job. The team breached the front door and entered the living room, they discovered that the door to the bedroom could not be breached so they sat down and waited.

Making them selves at home and getting comfortable with all the amenities that were available to them from Josette's kitchen to the large screen television. Occasionally they would look over to the closed door that was her bedroom and they would shoot knowing glances back and forth to each other with quirky smiles and keeping their thoughts to themselves they ordered pizza and waited.

Gerard Stiles sat in hell and fumed silently he looked around at the empty bedchambers. His anger was being controlled but not very well he looked about and then back to the old matron crone that had been the head of his nursery. "How could you allow them to take her and my son?"

The crone whimpered and sobbed cowering before his anger. "I had no control they came while I was securing the entrance to the chamber area. When I got back they had her and were gone. Had I been here they would have killed me!"

Gerard growled, "Better that you should have died than fail me!" Storming out of the room he moved to the gate to the next hell and found Logan waiting for him. Anger and rage consumed him he charged the gate and found his body hurled back into the center of the hallway.

"See its like this Gerard, your time and ticket for a ride to the light side has ended and that ticket is cancelled, as a matter of fact, you and Baal both are going to spend a lot of time together in the first pit of hell, working your way back to the ninth hell and by the time you get there it should be a few hundred years and a stronger group of SHADOWS will be there waiting for you and they will be prepared to send your sorry ass back again. I just wanted you to know it has not been a pleasure and I hope you rot in hell."

With those words said he chuckled and then slipped into the time stream flow and was gone from sight.

Baal stood glaring at his father, "You know you would not have had to suffered the indignity of having your father spank you had you not messed with my operatives." Damon stood back from his son with his arms crossed looking very much the pissed father as he studied his oldest son.

"Then to make your brother embrace the darkness in his soul was unforgivable. Now, as for your punishment Baal, you and Gerard are banished to the first hell and if you are patient, then you will be able to work together to come back to this hell the ninth one and you can rule this hell once again. But until then you need to think about your actions while you are fighting your way back to here."

With a wave of his hand and a scream of frustration, Baal disappeared. When he looked around he was standing next to Gerard. "I am going to make them all pay when I get out of here." Baal muttered in a petulant tone.

Gerard sighed deeply, "Perhaps by the time I get out of here, one of her children should have children and perhaps I can find her again through one of them."

Baal snorted, "Oh spare me your dribble about some woman, that is what got us in this trouble to begin with."

Gerard turned and punched Baal in the face and spoke harshly, "Shut up you whiney piece of dirt! You are getting on my nerves, you and your poor, poor pitiful me attitude. You have gone soft yourself Baal, you thought it was always about you well guess what, you are stuck with me for the next three hundred years so get over yourself."

Baal rubbed his nose and frowned, "That hurt, and this coming from a sex demon? You are pathetic Gerard; you got all caught up in the play world of wanting to be a husband, father and working a nine to five job? Come on you and I both know that you would not have lasted very long with that routine. You are a demon act like one and not a love sick puppy!"

Baal ducked when Gerard shot his fist at him again and laughed, "Missed me!"

Only to feel his other fist connect with his nose and the sound of a crunch and blood spurted from his nose Baal grabbed his nose and whined, "You broke my nose!"

He sighed and moved over to a rock and slumped down on it sniffing lightly. "Shut up Baal before I find something else on you to break."

Baal glared at Gerard, "Well are you not little frigging Mary Sunshine and I have this to listen to and tolerate for the next three hundred years?"

Gerard moved away from Baal and his incessant whining. "Yes you do not shut up and lets start working on getting out of here." Baal stood up like an errant schoolboy and begrudgingly followed Gerard to the hallway and the first challenge to move up the levels of hell.