Chapter 29 – She Settles Me Down and Cools The Fever In My Blood
Rosalie's POV
The last day and a half has been magical. It's not what we have been doing anything extraordinary per se, in all actuality we have done what we have done countless times before…..well besides the added benefit of more physical contact and kissing. Oh my stars the kissing. I never knew that kissing alone could make a person feel so unhinged. I don't recall anyone of my family members ever talking about how earth shattering one simple kiss could leave you or how one tiny brush of a hand on your back as someone barely touches you as they brush by you. Then again this could all be normal for vampire mating and I wouldn't know. Though I have a strong feeling that it's simply just Amber.
Laying in my love's arms has been heavenly. It was worrisome that my love slept for a little over 12 hours, but with how exhausted Amber was it was no surprise. That and it helped calm my nerves that Carlisle reassured me that she was alright when I called him.
We were broken out of our cocoon of reunion by Amber's phone going off. I immediately knew that it wouldn't be a happy phone call. Considering how many times that damn phone has pulled Amber away from me, I'm surprised that I haven't smashed it to pieces yet. With each new ring that phone inches closer and closer to death.
My fears are confirmed when Amber informs me that one of the sere specialists broke their ankle out in the woods during mobile phase. They were able to evacuate them, but now they are down an instructor that can be on the ground watching over the sere candidates as they navigate their way through the forest.
Since everyone else is at their assigned working area, Amber is the only one that's not working and is available to help out.
With a packed lunch and some snacks that I made Amber leaves with a kiss and a promise to call me.
Mike's POV
I'm leaning on my truck waiting for Amber. When I finally do spot her I can't help but to razz her as we get into the truck by tapping my watch and saying "You're late. You know we're going to be in trouble for walking into the ceremony late, you know that, right?"
"Yeah yeah yeah" Amber says dismissively. And continued to say "It's not my fault that I wound up with the group that tried to cheat and I would have to do a ton of paperwork." With a shake of her head.
"I don't know why we are so surprised, those candidates have been trying to skate since the very beginning. How did they think that they would be able to take people out in the woods and not only keep everyone safe and on the right paths, but how to teach other's is beyond me. If you cheat and take corners in training you will never learn the necessary skills needed to actually do the sere specialist's job." I say with disgust at the cheater's behavior.
After a minute or two of silence as we both reflected on the job and the difficulties that come with it I asked "What did the Commander say?"
After an exhaling breath Amber says "The least that will happen is that they are kicked out of the pipeline and get their rank taken away. The most that could happen is a dishonorable discharge."
What I'm about the say gets cut off by Amber going into a coughing fit.
"You sound like you're getting worse. Did you forget to take another dose of that cough medicine?" I scold her.
Amber grabs the bottle out of her pocket and takes a swig before saying "I thought it would go away, but it only seems to be getting worse."
"I doubt being out in the cold woods for 2 days helped." I reply with a roll of my eyes.
"Like I got a choice in that. Besides you know that we must 'place the mission over our own personal needs and wants'" was Amber's smart-ass reply.
I shove her in the shoulder as I say "Don't quote the sere creed to me".
I wiggle my eyebrows as I ask "So how was your homecoming?"
Amber rolls her eyes but can't hide the shit eating grin as she tells me "It was great."
"That's because you finally got the girl." Was my only reply.
Amber coughs again, thankfully not as bad as before. "We had to have the 'deployment talk'."
I snapped my head to look at Amber knowing that that conversation could end badly, depending on how well Rosalie took the talk.
There was a lot that I wanted to say and even more that I wanted to ask, but I settled on asking "What did you tell her?"
"The same thing that I told you. Everyone's safe and we completed our mission." Amber says with a shrug.
"And?" I ask to get the rest of the story.
"Well apparently my evasive answers about where I was and what I did while I was gone ticked her off….I forget that she is so new to all of this. So I told her that I'm home and everyone is safe and that's all that matters."
"How did she take it?" I asked hoping that at least Rose would be receptive.
Amber cleared her throat before she answered me by saying "I think she understands. I'm pretty sure that she'll have more questions as time goes on. We'll figure it out."
I hoped so, because if two people in this world deserved to end up together it would be Amber and Rosalie .
Amber's POV
Just as we both feared, we were late. Thankfully we were able to sneak in and lean against the back wall without making a scene.
I make eye contact with Rose and I give her a crooked grin and a wink as she gives me a finger wave. I pretended to catch the kiss that she blew to me and pretended to put it in my uniform's chest pocket.
I could see the other Cullen women aww at our cute display. Meanwhile Mike was making a gagging puking motion. After a few seconds of throwing discreet elbow jabs at each other we got ourselves back under control enough to pay attention to the presentation.
It was a ceremony where the handful of people assigned to Fairchild were sworn in and converted from being in the US Air Force to the US Space Force.
Since Mike and I knew a few of the people we of course had to go and show our support.
We made it in time for the swearing in, which we were thankful for.
After the ceremony ended Mike was called off to a group off to the side and I decided to look for my girl.
Rosalie' POV
I was so happy to finally have my love back in front of me. Even though Amber called me multiple times while she was out in the woods, it just wasn't the same.
Things took a weird turn when Amber had introduced me to some of her friends. I tried to hold her hand, but instead of holding my hand, Amber moved her hands into her pockets to avoid contact.
I was beyond a little hurt and confused. That was until we parted ways and I tried to wind my hands behind her neck and get a proper goodbye. She actually stepped away from me. What hurt the most was that she actually looked around making sure that no one saw before she gave me a brief kiss on the cheek before dashing away back to work.
It was then that I realized that Amber didn't want anyone to know that we were together. After thinking about meeting with her friends I was gutted. She didn't even introduce me as her girlfriend….
Amber's POV
After the ceremony I had to hightail it back to the schoolhouse, because there was still a lot that needed to be done regarding the sere candidates and their dishonorable actions.
It was almost ten o'clock by the time I was able to head home.. I had tried calling Rosalie, but it went straight to voice-mail so I figured that she had fallen asleep.
Turns out that my cough took a turn for the worse. After I had fallen asleep I woke up a few hours later in a cold sweat and I couldn't stop coughing.
I had to make a trip to the ER since the sere clinic was closed.
Turns out I had the beginning stages of walking pneumonia. I was given the week off to recover, but I honestly was unaware of how much time had passed. I know that I left a few texts and a voice-mail for Rose so that she wasn't worried, but that's as far as I remember.
Thankfully Mike stopped by and dropped some food off for me on the first night I was sent home.
Unfortunately Mike had to go out into the woods so I would be left to my own devices for the remainder of the week.
In my lucid moments, which were few and far between thanks to the meds they gave me, I wondered where Rose was. I was hoping that she would want to play nurse.
Rosalie in a naughty nurse's uniform were my last thoughts before I passed out again.
