3013: FATED (4 page)

“How are you feeling, today?” Vance asked.

Vance was having trouble remembering that he was here in an official capacity. There was something about Ciara that made him want to relax and simply enjoy her company. He didn’t want to talk about her recovery. He wanted to know about
her
. How did someone born and raised in Light City wind up in the badlands, working as a medic for the rebels? There were no answers to be found in her medical file. It was over a decade out of date, the last entries appearing just before Ciara turned twenty-one. After that, it was as if she’d vanished off the face of the planet.

She held her fork over her plate while deciding what to eat first. “I’m healing. My ribs still ache and the incision’s tender, but that’s all. So long as I don’t try any sudden moves, nothing hurts, so I’m calling it an improvement. The boys were by earlier. They’re both bouncing back amazingly fast, all things considered. Losing their mom is hurting them more than anything else right now.”

“There are some pains only time can heal,” Dane said, and Vance found himself nodding in agreement.

“Their father, Tanner, is going to take the Alliance’s offer and move to Fort Saken. I can’t blame him, but Black Springs is going to be hard pressed to rebuild without Tanner’s experience. His family were farmers for generations. He knows more about hydroponics than anyone else there.” She speared a morsel of baked apple and popped it into her mouth with obvious enjoyment.

Her low moan of appreciation was barely more than a hum, but it was enough to make Vance’s pulse quicken. He’d never been attracted to a patient before, but there was no denying that was what he was feeling. Too bad he couldn’t do anything about it. Not while she was under his care, anyway.

“Is that what Black Springs was? A hydroponics station?” Dane asked.

“More of a small, general farming community. Hydroponics is the easiest way to grow things out in the badlands. The soil’s too toxic to farm, but solar and wind power are plentiful, and the town was named for a natural spring that provided enough water.”

“If the soil is still toxic, wouldn’t the water be, too?” Vance asked.

“It’s a lot easier to purify water than dirt. At least, that’s what they told me.” Ciara shrugged. “I’m a medic, not a horticulturalist. I specialize in people, not plants. I do know that they were growing enough food to be able to trade with other towns. If they don’t rebuild, the others will need to find another way to get the produce they need.”

“I thought that the Alliance was shipping food supplies to the badlands to help the ones still living out there. Isn’t that enough?” Vance was intrigued by what he was hearing. His only trip to the badlands had been the rescue mission that resulted in him meeting Ciara. So far, he hadn’t been able to learn much about what really went on out there.

Ciara devoured the last bits of her pie before gesturing vaguely toward the room’s only window. “Too many people live out there. If they relied purely on the Alliance handouts, they’d starve to death. There are villages and communes scattered all across the badlands, and a number of nomads who don’t stay in one place too long. Alayna was one of those, always on the move. Some years, I’d only see her a couple of times unless she was hurt and needed to be patched up.”

“Alayna’s one tough woman. Almost as tough as another rebel I’ve recently met,” Vance said, looking pointedly at Ciara. To his amazement, she blushed.

She kept her eyes on her food as she started eating a bit of this and that. “I’m nothing special. Out there, you have to be tough, or you won’t last long. And I’m not really a rebel. I don’t take sides. I help anyone who needs it.”

Dane asked the question Vance had been itching to. “You said you’re a medic. Can I ask where you lived and how you ended up working out in the badlands? Not many people would leave Alliance lands the way you have. ”

Ciara glanced at Vance. “You didn’t tell him?”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t my place. What I saw in your records was confidential, and I was looking at the medical stuff. I was trying to save your life at the time. Your personal history wasn’t what I needed to know.”

Ciara was stunned. Vance would have to have seen her files by now. He was her doctor after all. It never occurred to her that he’d keep her secrets for her. “Thank you. That was…decent of you.”

Annie yawned and curled up like a kitten at Ciara’s feet, and Ciara reached out to stroke her brown curls, coaxing the child to relax even further.

“Okay, now I’m curious as hell. What didn’t Vance tell me? What am I missing?” Dane asked, keeping his voice low.

“I’m not a certified medic. Stars, I’m not a certified anything. I wasn’t finished with my training when I left Light City. I’m self-taught, picking up one or two courses along the way. I gathered up a few textbooks and training vids over the years, too.” She sighed in regret as she remembered she’d lost her meager library in the collapse of the clinic. “I guess I’m going to need to find a way to replace those.”

Dane was staring at her. “You’re self-taught? How’s that even possible? Vance was in school for-fucking-ever learning how to be a doctor.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, well, he knows a lot more than I do, and he gets to do his work in a nice, clean med-bay. Me? I worked in a clinic about the same size as this room with dirt floors, black market meds, and the knowledge that I was the only chance most of my patients had. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but having someone’s life in your hands is the grandmother of all incentives for not fucking up.”

Both men laughed, then hushed themselves as Annie stirred, stretched and then nodded off again.

“Will you go back out there once you’re healed up?” Dane asked.

“I’ll go where I’m needed. I doubt anyone around here needs my skills. They have the real thing to call on.”

Vance cleared his throat. “You could be the real thing, too, Ciara. I mean, you could finish studying to be a paramedic. You had the grades to be good at it. This place is growing, and they’re going to need a civilian med-center soon.”

She arched a brow in the handsome doctor’s direction. “So you did read more of my file than just my medical records.”

His mouth opened, closed, and opened again. “Uh—yes? Damn it, you caught me. I snooped.”

Dane clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter, and Ciara couldn’t help but grin at Vance’s distress. The big man really was likeable, and both men had managed to get past the walls she usually kept up when around anyone she didn’t know. She knew part of that was because she trusted her friend’s judgment. If Alayna thought they were unsavory types, she wouldn’t be friends with them. She certainly wouldn’t talk about them during every visit.

“I was training to be a paramedic before I had to leave home suddenly,” she explained to Dane. “My parents didn’t approve of what I was studying, but they really didn’t approve of anything I did. Once I was old enough that they weren’t in charge of my life anymore, I did what I wanted to, not what they expected of me. Then…things happened, and I eventually ended up out here. This wasn’t the life I had envisioned for myself, but it’s the one I got.”

“Your family. Do they have any idea where you are, or what you do?” Vance asked.

She could tell by his expression he already knew the answer. One of the last things Ciara had done before leaving for the badlands was to have her files flagged so that her family wouldn’t be contacted in case of emergency. Vance had to have seen that.

“They don’t know, and they don’t care.” She touched the star mark on her face. “They stopped caring the day I got this. As far as they’re concerned, they only had three kids. My sister the scroll and my two brothers, both of whom are ‘leets, like you.”

Dane looked down at his sleeping daughter with a smitten expression on his handsome face. “If your brothers let your parents turn their backs on you because you aren’t a scroll, then they’re nothing like us. When Annie’s testing day comes, we’ll face it as a family. When it’s over, it won’t matter what the results are. She’s always going to be our baby girl, and nothing will change that.”

“Then she’s a lucky little girl.” Ciara hadn’t stopped stroking the child’s hair as they talked. It wasn’t often she got to spend time with a child when they weren’t sick or in pain, and Annie’s sweet presence had brightened an otherwise boring day. Knowing she could never have children of her own made Ciara appreciate them all the more. They were a precious gift, and seeing Dane and Vance dote on their little girl made it easy to like them.

* * * *

Dane was still trying to wrap his head around the transformation that had taken place in the hour or so he’d been gone. He’d thought Ciara was attractive before, but now—damn. She really did clean up well. Vance had been surprised by the change, too. Dane had noticed his reaction, and the fact Vance had reacted at all was telling. Vance hadn’t so much as looked at another woman since Christine’s death.

Realizing all three of them had lapsed into silence, Dane restarted the conversation. He wasn’t ready to leave yet. He wanted to spend more time getting to know Ciara, and he suspected Vance did, too. “Would you ever consider going back to school and finishing your certification? Vance is right, this place is booming. You’d be able to find work here easily enough.”

The light in her eyes dimmed a little. “I don’t even have a place to stay, yet. If I stuck around, I’d have to do something else for work to pay the bills while I was training. If I go back to the badlands, I can trade my skills for room and board until I get back on my feet again. To be honest, I like to be needed. I want to make a difference. I’m not sure I can do that here in Fort Saken.”

Vance nodded. “It wouldn’t be easy. Giving up helping people, even for a while. I wouldn’t like that option if someone suggested it to me, either. But, I hope you think about it. You have to start over no matter what. Long term, I think you could make a real difference here.”

Dane watched the conversation with interest. Vance was definitely interested in the pretty redhead, even if he was doing his best to hide it. They’d been friends since their Academy days. There was no way Dane could miss the signs, especially not when he was feeling the same way. The question was, what were they going to do about it? They hadn’t talked about their future plans, yet. They’d both been focusing on making it day to day. Dating hadn’t even come up. But maybe it was time they talked about it. And while they were thinking about the future, there would be time to get to know Ciara better.

Ciara tried to stifle a yawn and failed. Between the food, and the effort it had taken to get herself cleaned up, she was exhausted again. As much as it pained her to admit it, she needed more time to heal. “I was going to try and convince you to let me out of here soon, Doc, but I’m betting the yawn screwed my chances, huh?”

Vance gave her an amused look. “Even if you hadn’t yawned, I have no intention of releasing you yet. I might consider early next week, though, if you keep healing the way you are.”

A few more days meant she’d be out a week earlier than the two weeks he had predicted she’d need when she first arrived. “I guess I could survive a few more days of abject boredom and bad food.”

Vance glanced down at her wrist and frowned. “Why don’t you have a wrist unit? That way you could watch vids, read, or at least contact people.”

“My wrist unit didn’t survive the earthquake, or if it did, no one was able to find it in the rubble. Alayna’s offered to buy me a new one, but I don’t want her spending credits on me. I’ll make do.”

“I’m sorry. I keep forgetting you lost damned near everything.” Vance looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded to himself. “Tell you what, I’ll gather up some reading material tonight, and tomorrow, I’ll come by and bring you another lunch of real food.”

He waggled a finger at her. “But only if you promise to get some rest and take it easy.”

It had been a long time since anyone had taken care of her like this. Usually, she was the one looking after other people. It was a little strange, but pleasant. She held up her hand, little finger outstretched. “I pinky swear I will stay in this bed and not push myself, so long as you pinky swear to bring more food tomorrow. And pie. There needs to be pie for this deal to happen.”

Vance laughed as he crossed the distance between them to link his finger with hers.

“I solemnly swear to bring pie as part of tomorrow’s lunch,” he vowed. He tightened his finger around hers for a quick second, then withdrew his hand.

“Then you have a deal, Doc.”

By this time Dane was slumped in his chair, laughing so hard he woke Annie from her nap.

“Why you laugh, Daddies?” she asked as she sat up and looked at her fathers.

“Because Ciara said something funny, sweet pea.” Dane rose and lifted the sleepy little girl into his arms. “C’mon, it’s time I got you home for a proper nap. Say bye-bye to Ciara.”

“Bye.” Annie waved her chubby hand, and Ciara felt her heart melt a little around the edges.

“Bye, Annie. Sleep well. Bye Dane, thank you for lunch.”

“It was nice meeting you, Ciara. If you like, I’d be happy to drop by now and then to keep you company. Until then, better do what your doctor says. Otherwise, he gets grumpy.”

“I do not get grumpy, thank you very much,” Vance grumbled.

Dane grinned and winked at her. “See what I mean?”

Vance rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who is an absolutely bast—bear in the morning before you have your first coffee.”

Ciara snickered. “A bast-bear? Is that like a shi-star?”

Both men looked sheepish. “The whole ‘don’t curse around Annie’ thing is a work in progress,” Vance said.

“I think it’s sweet you’re making an effort. And please, Dane, I’d welcome a visit any time.” Ciara’s last words were distorted by yet another yawn.

“We’ll go and let you sleep. I’ve got rounds coming up.” Vance gave her a smile and a wave, and a few seconds later, she was alone in her room.

With a contented sigh, Ciara placed her nearly empty tray of food aside and slid under the blanket to sleep. While she didn’t like the way the med-bed displayed her every function to anyone who walked in, the damned thing was certainly more comfortable than her cot had ever been. When she rebuilt her life, she was definitely going to find a way to own a decent bed for once. How she’d pay for it was a problem for another day. For now, she would rest and be grateful she was better fed and more comfortable than she’d been in a good long while. She’d also be grateful for her visitors. It would be nice to see them all again tomorrow.