Freed from the straps of their railed prisons, Mik and Ric had promised to be on good behavior. They'd been amazingly convincing about that in fact. Mik looked at Ric, about to ask him, "How do I look," and mumbled, "oh crap" instead. Because the answer to his question was obvious. They looked awful. They were healing; but they could have looked better. Tubes still provided them with fluids, but
the medications were lessened now, as their bodies repaired their wounds and their pains eased. Mik's ears were not visibly harmed, yet all he heard was a distant buzzing ... nothing of words, as if the room were filled with ... quiet flies. Head wrappings had been removed from both of them. Stubbornly healing stitches on the back of Mik's head were covered by a light, single layer, self stick dressing -- as was the deep wound on his chest. He
knew it was healing too, in the same way as Ric's matching wound; but they weren't quite hale yet.
The lights were dimmed in deference to Ric's healing eyes. His darkness had been replaced by dim objects of fuzzy white light that turned to blinding pain when the lights were turned on fully. He busied himself taking apart the ammunition-less gun of a Freemen soldier he conned into giving him the weapon. Just to see if could do it without sight. It was also an exercise to keep the butterflies from fluttering in his stomach. "What's keeping them?"
he muttered aloud but said very clearly internally through the link with Mik for the sake of his deaf twin.
A yellowed pad of note paper lay in Mik's lap. Covered with indecipherable scribbles of his own private code -- the same code that allowed him to find his way around the maze of the Deep Dark. He was making plans for their tour, managing troop movements, making notes on the supply trains. "They're coming..." he said in reassurance to Ric and as a reminder to himself to be patient ... neither application was working very well.
The room door opened, a sound unheard by the one, surely echoing loudly for the other. Adriann Bell popped his head in. Ric'd heard the door. His hands froze on the gun.
~Heads up, bro.~
~It's Bell.~ Mik, hands on the pad, had been watching the door and though he heard no sound, he'd seen.
~ Is she there? ~ Not daring to breathe, Ric squinted to where he knew the door to be; but saw only a
darkish blur.
Mik was watching as Adriann ducked back into the hall and murmured to Bliss. He smiled his one-dimpled smile as the girl beside him nodded, tried not to giggle and slipped into the room. Adriann looked on for a moment, then shut the door. Mik focused, sharing his vision ... and what a vision. His mental voice caught as he told Ric, ~See for yourself, bro... ~
Ric saw her then, through Mik's eyes as she slipped in, and a boyish grin split his face. "Bliss!"
Bliss was a vision of beauty as well as bruises and bites. Both were visible thanks to the short tank top she wore. "Hello, Gentlemen," she said. There was a big smile on her face as she looked from one to the other.
Ric's hands had moved from the gun to the tubing he sported; but, he remembered in the nick of time to stay in the bed. He'd promised to be good. What he wanted was to hug her tight and spin her around. He leant Mik his ears just as Mik leant him his eyes.
By the look on her face through Mik's eyes, Ric could tell she was happy to see them both alive but that she didn't know which way to move from the door so she just stood there, looking at the pair. "Got boo-booed good, I see," she said, her deep brown eyes sparkling.
"You too."
"Tain't nothing." She gave Mik a wink. "Just spindled and mutilated a bit around the edges."
Mik took in the sight of those bruises ... the bites. His joy at seeing her was tempered by the seriousness that came over him because of her condition. He'd believed in the good of people, even when fighting on opposite sides of a war. But bites! What kind of men were these who'd attacked her? What's wrong with me? He thought. His heart thudded in his chest with and anger made his head throb at the temples. He managed finally to say,
"Good thing too," in a stable Commander's voice as he heard through Ric's ears. Sane and civilized as he was, all he wanted to do was tear apart the ones who'd dared to touch her in such a way.
"Guess we all match," Ric quipped. "You okay, Bliss?"
"I'm, uhm, okay." She nodded her head rapidly. "Are either of you safe to hug?" The look in her eyes said the tubing was just a little ... scary.
"He bites," Ric said of Mik with sideways gesture that sent his head spinning.
"Only when requested ..." Mik shot a look Ric's direction which should have really made him woozy if he were looking through Mik's eyes.
Damn him, Ric thought and he pulled back in time.
She moved towards Sparky. "I've had enough of biting but nibbling's okay." She leaned down to give the man as gentle a hug as she could manage. "Gods, you two look wonderful and awful at the same time."
Softly, Mik said, "You look beautiful.. no matter what."
Ric squinted hard, but even close she was still just a blur. He returned the hug as tightly as he could, which was still much weaker than she used to but considering her condition, it was probably a good thing. He could feel her soft kiss against his cheek and she told him how much he'd had her worried. His breath was soft in her ear as he said, "Toldya I always come back."
Mik watched that first touch between them even while enjoying his brother's joy. Mik couldn't help thinking that one of these days it wasn't gonna be true that Ric would always come back; but they'd cheated death again. So for now, it didn't matter. What mattered was this time together.
Ric took a deep, inhaling her scent. "You smell great, but I think big brother's gettin' jealous."
Bliss straightened up and gave his hair -- little more than stubble since it had been hacked off to make way for bandaging -- a gentle ruffle. She giggled. "Nah."
And it was Bliss who was right this time... Mik envied "Sparky" getting the first hug; but damn, his hair looked lots better than Ric's. He smiled to himself. He trusted them utterly so serious jealousy was out of the question between himself and Ric. He knew and believed in these two people and he would always trust Ric with Bliss. No matter what.
Bliss sighed. "Good thing it grows back or I'd be even more upset about this."
"Grows fast too..." Mik supplied, a bit louder than necessary. He was clearly watching her lips move as she spoke. He'd been practicing -- because it was one thing to hear Ric's thoughts and another to hear Ric's 'relay' of others' words.
Ric flopped back against the propping pillows and smiled indulgently. ~Down a notch, bro,~ he told Mik mentally. Always he was about the business of making Mik the best he could be.
Bliss stepped back and turned towards Mik. "And you, what have you lost due to this?" She moved toward his bed, bent down to hug Ric's brother, her heart thumping a mile a minute.
Mik took Ric's volume control into consideration and lowered his voice a bit. "Lost? A few bits of skin... Something of my hearing."
Ric muttered, "Something?"
Aware of the IVan tube, he wrapped his arms around Bliss gently but wished he could crush her to him. "OK. All of my hearing..." ~Bedside confessions...~
Bliss frowned. "You can't hear me?" she said, her lips nuzzling against his ear.
That made relaying Bliss' words harder for Ric and his own love for Bliss - which wasn't wholly based on Mik's feelings for her -- came up in the form of closing off, backing away. He began to work on the gun again, lending only his hearing to Mik but nothing else. He would try to give his brother and Bliss some privacy. ~Dammit!~ It wasn't going to be easy.
Mik could feel her breath, the formation of the words as they whispered against him. He knew she spoke, but he couldn't hear it, no mattered how much he wanted to. His fingers tightened on her arms and he whispered, "Not a word. I hear through Ric sometimes." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "I let him see through my eyes." He lifted a hand to touch her cheek, smiling at the sight of her up close, pushing that vision through to Ric because Ric
deserved to see her too, how perfect she looked to Mik. Ric closed his eyes. The odd shadow play that was his vision was distracting to the picture of Bliss that Mik shared with him. He reveled in it a moment, then shut it away.
"Neat trick," she said, her voice soft, a smile on her face.
"It's just ... genetics." His eyes crinkled a bit. He was so happy to see her. "I missed you." For all the words he had, all the poet inside him, that was all he could say! His thumb moved against her small chin, the fingers of his other hand searching out the marks on her shoulder. Again the inner rage wanted to well up. How dare they! His nostrils flared.
"Missed you too," she said softly, but Mik read it even though Ric couldn't provide it. She was mindful of the tubes but sat down on the bed's edge beside him. "Think that's why I'm a patient."
His steely eyes clouded to gray. "What do you mean?" Behind his own words that reverberated in his mind as Ric relayed what he said to him as well, he heard the soft clicking of metal parts against metal parts as Ric blanked his mind from all. Mik thought how good Ric was to him to be just a pair of ears and moving hands on the familiar feel of the gun. Mik could feel the gun through Ric's fingers and that underlying Bliss' soft skin was a
peculiar feeling. But it lent credence to what he thought of this woman. Steel under velvet. Strong spirit, tender heart.
"I'm a patient in room 256," Bliss giggled unsteadily. "They want to medicate me." Mik could see she was operating in something of a state of mild confusion; but it made his heart soar to see that his touch soothed her in the way she closed her eyes a moment and leaned into his fingers.
He wondered if that giggle was completely normal or completely right? Sure he was a sight for sore eyes, as was she, but for him to soothe her so, for their mere presence to be a balm to her; maybe more was wrong. "Do they really think it will help you?" Doctors like medicating, he knew that. He worried. He captured her fingers and held them, enjoying the touch as if he'd never touched before.
"Yes, they do but I won't take them. I don't need any antidepressants, I just need to rest." She ruffled his hair very gently. "Soft, like Sparky's," she said.
Mik gave a faint grin. "We're twins." So their hair would be similar. They'd always teased one another about their hair. "Mine's Longer now." Ric had taken such pleasure in shearing all Mik's hair off so long ago it seemed in the Deep Dark that Mik was reveling a bit in the fact that he had longer hair. Between them there was always a bit of loving brotherly rivalry. It made them who they were and reassured them both in a manly fashion that
the love between them was always there.
A very soft mutter left Ric's lips. "Jerk..." he said. Okay, so maybe he was paying more attention than he let on. Mik smiled.
"Yeah," Bliss countered. "But it's your bed I'm trying to crawl into for a cuddle." She giggled again. Gods, he loved that sound. "Least this time." Mik knew that she had slept in Ric's arms before. He was of such a different mind on that point that it didn't bother him at all.
His throat grew suddenly tight, and he suffered a quick fade of humor. "Gods, Bliss. I wanna hear you say you love me." It was almost childish, urgent, selfish. Maybe she didn't want to say it...? But she soothed that fear for him immediately.
"I love you," she smiled. "I've missed you."
In an utterly joyful tone, he said, "I love you Bliss." I love you. IloveyouIloveyou... He tugged her toward
him, but gently. "You can cuddle as long as you want."
And now Ric was jealous. Myrr hadn't said that to him. Not that he deserved it. With practiced skill, he kept that from his brother, who really didn't need to deal with sibling rivalries right now.
"Forever," Mik whispered. His fingers lingered on her liquid gold hair. He was unaware, by Ric's design at that moment of how very much his brother was again and always his protector. Even saving him from having to hold back his feelings for this woman he adored. It was something Ric kept close to him, that he never wanted to reveal to Mik. The things he did and had always done to keep Mikkaill from harm, both physically and mentally. The only
thing he couldn't truly control was the bond they shared.
Bliss snuggled up close with a pleased sigh. "Always wanted to cuddle with you." She breathed deeply and closed her eyes. "So, who did this? Who's hearts do I rip out for this? I want to jump on all their heads."
He had the distinct feeling from how close she cuddled that she would have crawled inside him if she could. Mik was afraid to move at first, afraid to shatter the wholly incredible sensation of her against him. He glanced over her at Ric who, had completely stripped the gun he'd been working and now began to put it back together. Blind. Mik again was amazed by his brother. "Ric got one of them already..." he told Bliss. He was grinning, happy
at the thought and his present circumstance with this woman. "He's faster than I am." There was fierce pride in his tone for his brother.
"Right between the eyes," Ric supplied, well deserved pride in his own tone.
"Ah, yes, Sparky's a quick one. Good dancer too."
He fumbled the firing pin at the complement. "Am not."
"Yes, you are." Bliss chuckled softly.
Mik slid a look of incredulity at him. It was of course totally wasted on Ric but just one of those necessary things. "Dancing?"
Ric fingered the piece he'd fumbled, retrieving it. At least, it felt like the firing pin. He mustered some bravado. "Keeping each other company, s'all."
There was such a grin on Mik's face. It was a shame Ric couldn't see it. "A poet's soul after all." He snuggled down with Bliss, at last relaxing into the position, toying with the edge of her hair.
Ric could feel the heat climbing from his neck, threatening his cheeks. "Hardly."
"Don't know what I'd do without him, he always helps keep me sane, which is probably why I'm not so sane lately," Bliss told Mik. By her confidence in how she said it, she never feared for a moment that he would mistake what she meant.
Mik understood what Bliss said so well. Myrr had done that very thing for him when Ric was gone a year in Demm. "Then you'll have to stay close to us both."
Bliss cuddled up with Mik, and said, "I'd like that."
So he can keep you sane, Mik thought to himself, and I can touch your hair... It was a symbol to him, representative of the peaceful things he dwelt on to keep himself sane. His hopes... their future... he dared to dream that could be. It didn't matter what it took ... "Then that's how it'll be." Mik told her, fully confident that they could make it happen together. "I think he needs you as much as I do," Mik whispered.
Ric, for his part, pawed around the sheet that covered his lap, looking for that little spring. His teeth clicked together in frustration.
"I'm here, I always come back too." She tilted her face to lay a kiss on Mik's cheek.
Mik wanted to turn his head, taste her lips, but it wasn't fair; not with Ric trying so hard to reassemble the gun... or with how Bliss herself was feeling. He convinced himself that they had time yet... to go easy. But he shivered from head to toe with that gently placed kiss she gave him. On his beardless face he felt the fullness of her lips against his newly sensitive skin. Ric's hand strayed to his own cheek. Echoes of soft lips
brushed against his skin. He kept his eyes closed against the feeling.
"Lost the beard I see," Bliss nibbled along his jawline for a moment. "How long till you guys blow this prison?"
~ Kiss her, dammit. ~ Ric never planned ahead, though there was something niggling there in the back of his head that told him he should start. And that scared him badly.
The urging from his brother and the nibbling along his jaw overwhelmed Mik's chivalric resolve. Not really knowing the answer to her question, he answered instead with a kiss... tender and soft, it held the banked heat of promise behind it. Promise for a future. Their future.
Bliss' eyes snapped open at the feel of his lips, she was pretty sure Ric could hear her heart pound as she sank into it, but je couldn't hear hers, just Mik's thumping in his skull. He still couldn't find that spring.
Mik wasn't sure what Ric could feel... lost in the softest lips the Gods had ever made, but he was careful, so careful! And gentle... he still didn't know the extent of her injuries, despite what was visible.. though his own, at that moment, were muted memory. To experience this kiss he would have endured any agony. He didn't know that Bliss would have been happy to keep kissing him till she the day she died, she was being oh-so-careful of
his injuries. He would have been thrilled to know, touched to the heart to know, that the thought of hurting him terrified her.
Ric gave up looking and tried to sink farther into the pillows. He wished for that morphine drip, the adjustable one, so he could sink into oblivion, while they cuddled up. The gun lay in pieces on his lap. Like his life. He wondered when he'd lost his purpose.
Mik's fingers crept up, knotted in hair that flowed around them like silk, and broke the kiss. Even in the midst of his passion for Bliss he was sensitive to Ric's withdrawal and his own selfishness. He kissed her nose then and cradled her head close his eyes drifting over the sheet of Ric's bed. He spotted the spring with a whispered, "There.." for his brother's ears. It was cheating, it wasn't how Ric wanted to reassemble the gun; or feel
reassured, but the reminder went to him anyway: ~You aren't alone.~
~I know. I'm sorry.~
Mik hadn't wanted an apology, but that was Ric. To Ric's credit, he used Mik's eyes to find that spring, though it took him a couple of swipes because of the odd perspective.
Bliss issued a happy sigh, followed by a soft giggle. "We gotta get you guys outta here soon, we have a lot to do. I've got to take Gideonn home and you guys got Freemen to lead."
"But we're... Who you gonna take home?" Ric would have blinked in surprise if his eyes weren't covered. Mik did. He tilted his head to one side, as the question echoed in his mind.
"Gideonn," she repeated, an almost blissful smile on her face. "He's two."
Okay, Mik thought. Were 'they' right, did she really need the medication the doctors wanted to prescribe. "Gideonn? But that's ... our name."
Ric echoed, "Yeah...our name..."
"I know that." She chuckled at their confusion. "I named him after you two. Gideonn Lovejoy is two years old with ink black hair and bright blue eyes. He's absolutely beautiful, if very quiet."
Mik was startled, and his lips parted, but he remained deaf and dumb. Ric tilted his head in the opposite direction, toward her voice. "Not your kid, is he?"
"No, I stole him from a very bad man along with several other kids."
"That's not who came after you..?" Mik found his voice.
"Nah, he's very dead. One of my associates saw to that when we were stealing his merchandise."
Ric let out a soft breath. "You're going to have to tell us everything... where's this boy now?"
"In pediatrics. He doesn't talk much and is afraid of most everything." She stroked her hand up
Mik's arm. "We stole him from a bad man who sold children to sick people." A shudder took him, and not all because of her stroking fingers. ~Justice...~ Mik thought.
And Ric's response was, ~ Too easy on him to just...die. ~ The spring sprung into place. He searched for the next part while he listened.
"Got six away from him, ages two to nine. Some in better condition then others."
"You let us know if there's anything the hospital can't provide."
"Gideonn is so beautiful, a silent little angel." She tilted her face up. "I was very bad, Mik."
He eyed her, lips quirked at the edges. "Bad? How were you bad?" And should you be punished...? That was his own private little badness that was only momentary.
"His client list, the people he sold the kids too." She nibbled her bottom lip. "I gave it to the Major."
"It sounds as if Justice will be served."
"It was, she rounded them all up. They won't ever be back." Bliss seemed surprised that he wasn't mad at her about it. "You're not mad?"
"Imagine, a Nuke good for something..." Ric remarked. *Click, click.* The gun slowly took shape once more.
If he knew anything about the Major at all it was that she hated men, bad or no... so it stood to reason that bad men would get what they deserved at her hands. "No reason to be," he said, nodding at what Ric had said. "I've always believed there were good Nukes and bad Nukes..." Just like Iminn proved there are bad Freemen as well as good. Like Mikkael Blackk.
"She was more then happy to help once she knew what kind of people they were," Bliss said of the Major, a small smile flitting across her lips. Met a nasty lady that works for the Nukes, she likes to torture people. I gave her one of the guys who attacked me that we had caught." The flitting smile faded. "I've been very bad."
Mik was taken by soft, rich laughter... which he felt so very good at being able - alive! - to do. "I think you've been very, very good."
"The other one we caught is salvageable, not happy right now, but he can be salvaged."
"Salvaged?" Mik wasn't aware she was in the business of salvaging people and his respect for her rose a few notches more. She was more than just some teenager. Most of them looked at Sabatt and saw a jaded, dying world. As a result, they sold themselves, attacked others or suicided. Bliss looked and saw hope and fought to keep that hope alive. It didn't matter that she couldn't see the future or that in that future she might die tomorrow. What
mattered was how she lived the present. Mik hadn't realized it was possible to adore her more; but he did. Mik began to think that Bliss was doing his job... and that he had damn well better get off his sorry ass and start doing his job again... for Sabatt -- if one believed Adriann Bell -- and for his sanity.
"Not a bad boy, just running with the wrong crowd therefore salvageable."
Working on the gun, Ric racked back the slide and clicked it forward again. ~ Did I miss any parts, bro?~ He clearly half hated to hear the answer. Mik watched Ric, reveled in being close to Bliss, and scanned the sheets on his brothers bed. ~See for yourself... ~
He was getting used to the vertigo as he swept Mik's vision across the sheet. He faded into a satisfied smirk. ~Gonna hafta get a pattern going... Way too slow.~ He aimed the gun at one of the pinging machines and dry fired it. The hammer clicked like it was supposed to.
~You always expect everything of yourself.~
~ Why shouldn't I? Someone's gotta. ~ Immediately, not taking a moment to rest in the knowledge that he had *done* it blind, Ric began to strip the gun down again, this time laying every part out in precise order. The only threat to his plan - uncontrollable twitching.
"Salvagable." Mik pondered aloud to Bliss. "Was he a Nuke? A Cultie? A Ganger?" he twirled strands of her hair around his index finger.
"Gangers. They were hired but I don't know by who yet."
"Who would wanna hurt you like that..?" He was gonna tell Ric that without the PTBs Ric was the only one who would push himself so hard... but he didn't because he knew it wouldn't matter. He'd have still pushed himself that hard, or harder, most likely.
"I don't know but I'm going to find out. Hired a bunch of gangers to hurt me but not kill me, doubt I'll be that kind."
Daring to be possessive about it, "Be careful, Bliss." Mik didn't have to remind her; but he did... because it spoke of how he cared.
"You need any help or anything, Bliss...you let us know," Ric told her.
"I just need you two to stay alive so I can."
His heart was finally calming down and made him realize how weary he was. "We're not dyin' anytime soon." He snuggled in against her as if getting closer without getting inside her was possible; not that he didn't want to do that either... cause he did, but timing is everything.
"Yeah, we live charmed lives," Ric added.
Mik shot him a look again. He had always believed that of Ric.. ~... ever since you jumped off the damn roof.~ But he paid for that and subsequent follies with injuries and other repercussions.
"They think I'm charmed but I'm not," Bliss supplied, more then happy to cuddle up closer.
Ric sighed softly, an utterance Mik couldn't hear. He'd have to put the gun together so he could have something to cuddle up with.
"Hmm charming if not charmed... and a blessing of the gods..." Mik's voice was half loopy... deliriously happy ... and sleepy all at once. Bliss giggled softly. It was a beautiful sound to him. He nuzzled into her neck, breathing her in... Then whispered, "Bliss?"
"Mmmm?" She was near to dozing herself like a fat lazy cat. It was wonderful.
Ric kept up a pattern of taking the gun apart and putting it back together.
"I love you... and I'm going to fall asleep now..." Mik said, as weariness, relief of seeing her whole and the oddly soothing click, click, click of the gun parting and joining crept over him. It was soothing he realized because it was his brother making the sound.
Ric ignored the sleepiness that threatened him like it was threatening the pair in the next bed. He'd sleep when he got it right.
"That's okay; I'll stay here till I'm kicked out."
"Yer here till that drill sergeant of a doctor gets here at least," Ric told her absently, his fingers and his mind focusing on the task, literally, at hand.
"I love you too," she told Ric. "I love both of you in different but very special ways."
Mik knew... and knowing was all that mattered. He fell asleep smiling.
He didn't hear Ric whisper to Bliss, "I don't think he's smiled like that in a long time, Bliss. Thank you." Ric could feel the peace settle about his brother, rather than see it. He just knew Mik was smiling.
"My pleasure, believe me." Bliss whispered, wearing a similar smile.
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