Emma: Part Two (6 page)

Emma nodded, unable to make her lips work. The shock of being told she had basically married two strangers was too much. After everything else she had endured in the last day and a half, Emma couldn’t take anymore. She felt sure she would crack if one more thing went wrong.

She barely felt the needles jabbing into her arms a few minutes later. The medic drew so much blood Emma felt lightheaded. The vaccines that followed didn't help. She was handed the smallest pair of scrubs they had but they swamped her tiny frame. Emma did the best she could with the pants, pulling the drawstring as tight as it would go and rolling up the bottoms so they didn't drag on the floor. The shirt was a lost cause.

Another medic guided her down a hall and showed her a small room with bars over the windows. The bathroom was private, at least, and the bed somewhat comfortable. A triple set of locks engaged when the door closed. Claustrophobia squeezed her chest. She tried to relax but it was so hard.

An hour or so after she had been placed in the room, a medic brought food, a toiletry kit and the Outpost manual. There was also a small cup for a urine sample. She took care of that first and placed it in the small paper bag supplied before sliding it out the small window on the door.

Emma devoured the soup, sandwich, fries and bottles of water on the tray while she reading the manual. Some of the information terrified her. Corporal punishment for lawbreakers existed as one of the cyborg society's main deterrents to "bad" behavior. Emma tried to pay attention to all the different crimes that would get her tied to a post and whipped.

Soon, though, she started to feel the effects of the vaccines. Her head pounded and stomach twisted. When the shivering started, she slid between the scratchy covers on the bed and rested her head on the pillow. She didn't want to cry. She wanted to prove she was stronger than this but her fight proved futile. The tears came quickly. Her face grew hot and wet as she wept into the pillow.

The sensation of loneliness she experienced rivaled that of the days and nights following her father's death. Outside that locked door was a hospital teeming with cyborgs and humans but not a single one of them cared about her.

And the two men who had promised to protect her? They were nowhere to be found. Betrayal didn't even come close to touching what Emma felt.

Pulling the covers up over her face, she closed her eyes and prayed for sleep to come. At least in her dreams, she was still free.

*

Max loitered outside the hospital until the second shift-change in the middle of the night. He was risking a court martial by trying to get into Emma's room but he couldn't stand being away from her. His gut soured at the thought of what she'd suffered through without them by her side to help. He needed to make sure she was all right.

As he slipped into the hospital through the loading docks, Max made sure to keep a low profile. While waiting, he had stolen a pair of clean scrubs from one of the laundry trucks idling in the loading bay and slipped into them. He used the back corridors of the hospital, carefully navigating the mental map he had created by studying the hospital's emergency evacuation plans stored on the Outpost's network. Being a major had its advantages, after all.

He snatched a paper mask from one of the supply trolleys parked in the hallway of the quarantine unit so he could pass by the medic's station without garnering too much attention. He breathed a sigh of relief when he passed the desk and turned down an empty hall.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Julie Freedmore's familiar voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Just going to check on a patient in room six," he said, deliberately altering and lowering his tone. "I have orders for vital signs every hour, ma’am."

"Oh, please," Julie replied with a lot of attitude. "I've known you since we were created at Gulfpoint Labs. Knock it off and lose the mask, Max."

Caught red-handed, he sighed loudly and removed the paper barrier covering the lower half of his face. He slowly spun to face Julie. Her pissed-off expression took him by surprise. "What? Like I'm the first cyborg to try to sneak in and see his girl during quarantine."

"I'm not so sure you want to see your girl right now, Max. In fact," Julie said as she moved closer, "I'd seriously suggest you leave her alone for a few days. She needs to recover."

Fury burned through him. "What did you do to her?"

Julie glared back at him. "What did I do to her? How about what you did to her, Max? You know my job is hard enough. I'm the one who has to perform painful medical testing on the human females, and I'm the one who subjects them to a series of painful vaccinations they’ve been taught to fear and mistrust. My life would be a hell of a lot easier if I didn't have to break the news of their civil unions too."

Panic knotted in the pit of his stomach. "Shit," he swore. "We forgot, Julie. It wasn't done maliciously. It just skipped our minds."

"That is the lamest excuse I've ever heard, Max."

"It's the truth, Julie. We had to fight off hundreds of zombies and barely survived to reach the exfil point. There was mop up after and an explosion that leveled her home. Telling her all the rules took a lower priority than keeping her alive."

"I’m not the one who needs to be hearing this explanation, Max. I think the person you owe this apology and explanation to cried herself to sleep in that room."

Guilt punched him in the gut. The thought of his sweet Emma crying alone in a quarantine room made him hurt. "I have to see her, Julie."

If it was anyone else, he would pull rank, but he and Julie had been commissioned on exactly the same day at exactly the same rank. The hospital was her domain and he had to respect that.

"Please, Julie.” He wasn’t above begging for a chance to see Emma.

Her expression changed. "All right, Max. I'll give you an hour, but no longer." She eyed him disdainfully. "And keep your dick in your pants. That girl has been through enough today. She doesn't need you bothering her."

"Shit, Julie," Max said, taken aback by her warning. "What do you think I am? A Neanderthal?"

"Do you really want to know the answer to that question?"

He really didn't. Max sensed every female cyborg on the Outpost would be up his ass for the next week about the way he had done Emma wrong.
Fair enough
, he reasoned. However much he had wanted to protect her and keep her safe, he had failed.

Max pivoted on his heel and headed for her room.

Julie followed him and punched the code to unlock the door. "Good luck. You're going to need it."

Max didn't reply as he slipped inside the room. The door clicked as it closed behind him. He tried to adjust to the darkness but the bedside lamp suddenly turned on. He blinked as Emma shot up in bed and scowled at him. "You!"

She snatched up the water pitcher next to her bed and flung it at his head. Max ducked, but the pitcher caught the side of his head and grazed his ear. "Shit! Emma, that hurt!"

"You think that hurt?" She threw back the covers. "Come over here, and I'll show you something that hurts even worse."

She jumped out of bed and started toward him but then her face slackened and she tumbled forward. Max's cyborg speed and reflexes came in handy as he darted across the room to catch her before she hit the floor. "Emma! Baby? Are you okay?”

She made a whimpering sound. Her blazing hot skin seared his as he lifted her in his arms and carried her back to the bed. “Honey, you’re burning up.”

He started to place her on the mattress but stopped when he realized her sheets were soaked with sweat. "Here," he said as he shifted her into the chair next to the bed. "Sit still while I change these."

Emma didn't speak. She looked dreadful. Her face was blotchy and red. Her hair seemed dryer than usual and frizzy. The acrid smell of antiseptic clung to her. Max hurriedly poked through the cabinets in the room until he found one packed with clean sheets. With practiced efficiency, he stripped and remade the bed, even going so far as to tuck in the clean, sharp corners he had been taught as a child.

He went in search of the water pitcher. He refilled it with cold water and poured some into the matching cup sitting on the bedside table. "Drink this, honey. You need to stay hydrated."

She didn’t fight him but didn't meet his concerned gaze either. While she sipped the water, Max went back to the cabinet where he had seen extra scrubs and found the smallest size. As he shook them out, he knew they would be way too big but there wasn't any other option. Emma allowed him to help her out of her damp scrubs and into clean ones.

His gaze fell on the bruises on her upper arms and the purpling along the inside of her elbows. How much blood had they taken? And who had given her those vaccines? It looked as if the needles had been driven into her arms with a nail gun.

Feeling guilty and responsible for her misery, Max cradled Emma to his chest and pressed a lingering kiss to her hot forehead before placing her on the fresh sheets. He fluffed the pillow behind her head and sat down on the edge of the bed. He picked up her hand and placed it on his palm. He stroked the top with his fingers. "How are you feeling?"

She gaped at him. "How do you think I feel, Max?" Tears glistened in her eyes. "My head is pounding. My body is on fire. My skin is raw from that horrible, stinging cleaner and wiry brushes those two awful men used on me. I was humiliated over and over again. They made me strip naked. A doctor put her fingers inside me." Emma choked back a sob. "I just want to go home."

Max's heart broke as Emma shattered right in front of him. His beautiful, strong, wild Emma had been reduced to tears because of him. His throat tightened, and he swallowed the lump forming there. "I'm sorry, Emma. I didn't mean for any of this to happen to you."

"You keep saying that but terrible shit keeps happening to me. Seriously, Max, I'd be crazy to want to stay here."

She was right—and it killed him. "I don't know what to tell you, Emma. When you saved us, I wanted to repay you. I wanted to save you right back. And, yes, I wanted you. I
want
you. One look, and I knew you were the only woman I wanted as my mate. And I'll admit. I thought about just taking you from your home. It would have been so easy. I could have drugged you while Jack jimmied your radio. We could have had a helicopter at your place in less than an hour and been back here just as quickly."

He avoided the shocked look on her face as he confessed all those ugly thoughts. "But I couldn't do it. Jack was right. You deserved better. You deserved to make your own decision. I wanted that for you. I wanted—
we
wanted—to show you how good it could be for you, Emma. We wanted you to
want
to come with us. Having your hand forced by the zombies and the fire was the last thing we wanted for you."

Emma silently considered his explanation. "I believe you," she said finally. "Although," she added, "it's probably just the fever making me delirious and easily persuaded."

Max shot her a smile. "I'll take it."

"You would," she said with a tiny grin. The smile died slowly. "But you and Jack still lied to me. You never told me that I had to marry you."

"We were going to, Emma. I swear," he said forcefully. "We'd agreed that you needed to be told all the facts before you made your decision. We were going to tell you this morning after spending the night making love to you but then—"

"Everything went to hell," Emma finished for him.

"Yeah."

"So we're really married?" She fidgeted with the hem of her too long and too big shirt.

“We will be once the paperwork is filed tomorrow.”

"Like forever? I mean, is there divorce here?"

Max wanted to lie and tell her no but he couldn't do it. "Yes, you can apply for a divorce." He swallowed hard before continuing. "Jack and I can get the papers to you in the morning, if that's what you want. They'll transfer you from quarantine to the women's barracks on the other side of the Outpost while they process the papers."

Emma studied him carefully. "Would you be sad if I asked for a divorce?"

Max blew out a loud breath. "Are you serious, Emma? I've only known you for a little more than a day, but it would break me if you left. I would spend the rest of my life worrying about you. I want you here with me and Jack. I want to protect you and love you and give you everything you've ever been denied."

Emma started to speak but he held up his hand, silently begging for more time. She closed her mouth and nodded, granting him a chance to continue pleading his case.

"Look, Emma, I know I can be a rough old bastard. I'm not promising you sunshine and roses all the time, but I swear to you that Jack and I will do everything in our power to make you happy. You don't know a lot about cyborgs, and what you've experienced so far has probably left a bad taste in your mouth, but let me tell you this. We don't hit women or verbally abuse them. We don't drink. We don't cheat. We just want to love and be loved and have families. That's it, Emma."

"That's it?" She asked as she placed her other hand atop his. "I guess that doesn't sound so bad."

The corners of Max's mouth curved upward. "No, not too bad." He cupped her chin and gazed into her pretty green eyes. "So what do you say, Emma? Will you give us a chance to make you happy?"