Chapter Fifteen

Alicia settled Storme, Acadia, Renee, and Janna in the living room, the women looking uncomfortable but warm and dry as she wrangled Boxer into a towel and dried the acrotholus off before mud was spread all over the unit. The little dinosaur tore over to meet their guests the moment Alicia let her go. She sighed and took out a plex before leaning against the counter and checking that the market had been shut down, work crews had made it to shelter and that the various security teams were doing head counts to confirm no stragglers were stranded.

She radioed Reilly to confirm the science division was all accounted for. Listening to the chatter in between, waiting to hear Nathaniel. As time passed and the colony shut down with the storm roaring she called Nathaniel over the main frequency and again on the private channel they often used. The silence was enough for her to leave the unit and go to the command center; it was empty and worry balled in her stomach. She wasn't sure of his plans for the day.

She cut through the chatter again, checking with various areas; Nathaniel wasn't in any of the main shelters and she wasn't betting he was in a private unit. Finally the south guard post radioed in; he had left the colony on foot several hours before the storm began. It was early afternoon and the weather was not breaking.

They had seen violent storms before, but never this early in the season. She wanted to lead the team dispatched to run up to memorial fields, it was the only destination she would guess he would have today. But she had to trust it to Shannon, and hope he was holed up somewhere waiting it out; and would be irritated with her for worrying over him. She worried over the members of Seagoing camp who were on the water in this, they had known this was coming as they had wanted their harvest but she hoped they had gotten to shelter.

Finally she resorted to pacing like a caged cat, there was nothing she could do and she wouldn't tie up a channel pestering her team; they knew their job. The wind let up a bit, but rain continued to come down in sheets and thunder rumbled in the distance. Word came through that their western power grid was down, looking out the window she saw branches down in the street.

It was early evening when the report finally came in; they'd found Nathaniel. The hours of silence had reassured her, making her hope that he had found somewhere to hide out the storm. That was not the case. As the rover raced for the infirmary she slipped out of the unit. The rover she had used was gone and she wasn't waiting to call for another; Alicia was soaked to the bone before the end of the block.

She saw the head lights of two rovers heading down a street two up; they were back. By the time she got to the infirmary they were empty, soldiers hovered just inside and none met her eyes. Alicia stepped through, surveying the open treatment area; he wasn't there. She moved down the hall towards the private rooms. Shannon stepped out of one and she veered to it.

"Wash, just wait. Liz is looking at him." Jim Shannon held up his hands as if to stop her, she sidestepped quickly and slipped through the door.

The room buzzed with activity, the doctor was examining a hologram of her husband; he lay too still on the bio bed. A nurse cleaned a nasty cut on his forehead, and another joined the doctor examining the hologram. She didn't wince when the nurse began to scrub out a wound, it was miserable but necessary the fact he didn't react bothered her more. He was out cold, and given he was soaked there was no way to guess how much blood he had lost; the rain would have washed it away.

Ignoring the others she reached out and put a hand around his wrist, his skin was cold to the touch and his pulse thready; Alicia worked to hide what she felt. She had married a man fifteen years older than her, she didn't care about age or what anyone thought about it. But right now she had to admit he looked older, it would be harder for him to heal; someday he wouldn't be able to bounce back as he had.

There were already many fine scars on his body showing the life he had lived but also the injuries and pain he had survived. Someday it would take its toll but that day couldn't come so soon. Nurse Ogawa took her arm, trying to guide her back; Alicia held her ground as they buzzed around her.

His hand moved ever so slightly and Alicia shifted from holding his wrist to sliding her hand into his; studying his face. No eye movement, Alicia swallowed hard, squeezing her hand around his, the wound on his head was cleaned and closed but the effect was still hanging on.

"You are soaked to the bone Wash. Get out of here and dry off. We've got plenty of nurses." One of the nurses tried to nudge her away again; Alicia glared as she was not the only one who had been in the rain. Sometimes it seemed as though nurses discounted her training because it was meant for the battlefield.

"Let her be." The head nurse passed, probably noting the look on her face.

….

It was an hour that dragged on forever, before the room cleared and Alicia was left alone with her husband. He was tough, and he was stubborn but right now he didn't look it. Sitting on the edge of the bed she listened to the machine tracking his vitals; he was stable at least.

Time stretched out as she waited for him to wake. Finally he shifted, a groan rumbling from his chest. Alicia slid his hand into hers as a machine began to beep rapidly; his face shifting in a wince.

"Just stay still." She murmured, wincing as he began to struggle up. She breathed a sigh of relief she would never admit to holding; thankful the man never wanted to stay down.

A moment later nurses and the doctor began to filter in and out, checking the screen and taking vitals. She knew it was everything Nathaniel had not to snarl at them, she kept a hand in his, tightening it when she saw him start. He balked as soon as Elisabeth mentioned staying the night, and Alicia knew it was a fight the doctor was doomed to loose. And when she did she tugged Alicia with her into the hall.

"I haven't seen you in weeks, last department meeting I think. How are you?" Elisabeth leaned against the wall.

"Things have been busy." She murmured, the space has been intentional; just as now she had her hands in her pocket. She wanted to keep the changes in her body to herself but she knew she was pushing it. "Is he alright?"

"He is just like you, I'll let you take him home but every couple hours make sure you check that he is alert and aware. Any dizziness, double vision or paresthesia and I want him back here. And he doesn't to need to spend time on his feet for the next couple days." The doctor instructed. "But I do need to see you in about two weeks if you are taking the injections regularly."

Alicia nodded and excused herself quickly, the longer she spent with the doctor the more likely the woman's sharp gaze would catch something about her. Nathaniel was in a foul mood by the time she helped him to the rover and then into the house. The women from the camp sat close together as she dragged her husband back to the bed room; he growled until she had him settled.

"You give me a hard time and I'll toss you back to Shannon and leave you in the infirmary." She warned as he started to snarl again. "Nathaniel don't."

"Anyone else get an exam while I was in there?" He asked, his hands reaching for her and resting on her sides.

"No. My scans are clear and right now we have other things to worry about." She slid one of his hands from her side into her own, the other had worked under her clothes to press to her skin over their child.

"I disagree. I do worry about my wife and our baby. Soon Alicia."

….

He spent a day at home, more to satisfy his wife than because he was concerned with the doctor's orders. Alicia had seen him come through far worse but he hadn't seen her look so worried in a long time. She would worry about their neighbors who had yet to return home but his tumble hadn't helped things. He hadn't told her why he had gone out to memorial fields, he hadn't needed to; just as she hadn't commented.

Alicia worked at her desk and even though it was just the two of them her armour was securely in place with extra plates across the chest to even out the difference their child made in her mid section. It was no longer the slight change he saw because he knew and enjoyed her body, it was clear now as the baby grew and by his math she was approaching the second trimester.

And the fact they didn't know the gender was odd, but Alicia was bound and bent to keep it private; and in a sense he understood. Everything they did was wrapped up in the colony, and open to comment, Alicia needed their family to be theirs and the freedom that gave her.

He was not about to tuck her up in the house for the next six months, nor did he have any desire to run the colony alone. But most, including Elisabeth whose opinion Alicia valued, would disagree with them. His wife was tough, and she was capable; she could work as long as she wanted. He'd asked her to stop sparring and she had, he'd asked her not to lead OTG expeditions and mostly she was staying within the colony; those were enough precaution for him.

In time he knew he was going to need to be more aware of how he handled her, making sure he did not push his desires on her when her body was already so strained; he was not looking forward to that aspect of those months.

Shannon strode in and crossed to his desk. "Mira's on the gate. You waiting on her?"

"Bring her up." He rose and flipped a board with several plans that the colony was working on, and glanced to Alicia. "You okay to stay?"

"Do I need to?"

"I'd prefer it." Guzman was bouncing on and off colony overseeing the outposts, Shannon had been on his way out to deal with an issue between a construction crew and the ever opinionated Malcolm Wallace.

Alicia nodded and rose to lean on the cabinet behind his desk.