Meeting Them

  His hips jerked against my backside, and I felt a warm liquid behind me. He whispered my name. My pleasure had brought on his own.

  I closed my eyes.

  Vaguely, I became aware of Tommy taking care of me. He wiped me down with a warm rag, cleaning me up before he climbed in behind me. His arms were strong, and when he pulled me up against him, I was heavy in his arms. I would have moved if I could have.

  He kissed my cheek. “No bad dreams, and if they show up, you put me in them to fight off the bad guys. I’m good at it. I was born to fight.”

  I closed my eyes and didn’t dream at all.

  A knock on the door made Tommy groan and brought me back to the land of the living. Or at least the land of the sort of awake.

  Tommy patted my body and yelled at the door. “I get a couple of hours more at least. If we were on a planet, the sun wouldn’t be up yet.”

  “I need you to look at some readings. I wouldn’t bother you if it weren’t important.” Something was different about Clay’s voice.

  I found my voice and made it work. “He sounds stressed.”

  “That he does, and he never gets worked up over nothing. Even the time he couldn’t stop thinking about this girl who lived with the Sisters and saved his life turned out to be important.”

  I kissed his arm, and he bent over to caress my cheek. “I’ll be back. Don’t wake up yet.”

  He grabbed his pants and scurried from the room. That was the first time I noticed the tattoo on his leg. It matched his arm. It was a scorpion. A black one. It looked like as though it travelled down his leg toward his foot, where it reached forward.

  I’d seen the symbol before, whenever the news on Mars Station talked about the Sandler Cartel.

  I closed my eyes, pushing away the unease the sight caused me. Tommy, Clay, Keith, and Quinn weren’t the bad guys. Everyone had a story—everyone got to be the hero of their own adventure. They weren’t perfect. They’d done some bad things. They thought they needed redemption. Maybe they did. It wasn’t for me to judge, and I wasn’t a confessor who could offer them forgiveness. But we did things on Mars Station too, or at least the leaders did. Earth wasn’t without fault. And those who claimed to be holy wielded a stick.

  At the end of the day, we were all human, and they’d been nothing but kind and loving to me. I’d fallen for them all, hard.

  Of course it begged the question, when all was said and done, would I be Mrs. McQueen or Mrs. Sandler?

  Sleep didn’t come back and neither did Tommy.

  ***

  I padded my way out of the room on bare feet. I was at least mostly dressed. I needed coffee if I was going to find my shoes. Where had they gone? I didn’t know.

  Clay and Tommy stood in the control room pointing at something only they could see. Keith stood when I came into the galley and pulled me to him before planting a soft kiss on my mouth. “Morning. Two nights without you, and I am losing my mind.”

  I grinned at him. He looked pretty well rested to me. There was no strain under his eyes. “Did you have good dreams?”

  He scratched his head. “I’m not sure actually. I never remember my dreams.”

  “Coffee?

  Keith grinned. “On it.”

  He walked over and poured me a cup of the stuff that would keep me awake, I hoped, for the rest of the day. “Where’s your twin?”

  “Out cold. He worked all night.”

  “You’re sure I didn’t do a bad thing putting this idea in his head?”

  “No.” He set the piping hot cup of goodness in front of me. “Baby, he is sleeping without drugs of any kind. He’s a little manic like that, but he got like that whenever he was really working. All the game playing these years, it hasn’t challenged him, not really. Fighting himself? He’s exhausted at the end of the night. I’m thrilled. He might even get back on a normal sleep-wake schedule. I’ve been taking care of Quinn a long time. I mean, we all have. I was the only one who knew what he and Dad were doing. They sent me away from him when I started to voice too much opposition.”

  I placed my hand on his arm. “Someday soon you’ll get to make the impossible possible again.”

  “You being alive, you being here, it makes me think maybe.”

  “What are they doing in there?’

  He shook his head. “Clay got a blip. We can’t find it now. Might be space junk. The pirates leave their crap everywhere. But something got Clay’s back up, and he doesn’t panic. Tommy’s taking it seriously.”

  I touched his arm. “What do you think?”

  “I think my brother doesn’t overreact.”

  He trusted Clay. I got it. I sipped my coffee and decided I had to go find my shoes. I didn’t want to walk around as shoeless Paloma for the next weeks until we got to Mars Station. I walked back to Tommy’s room and, after a bit of searching, found them under one of his desks. How they had gotten there I didn’t know, but I’d always had the propensity to lose shoes, so I tried not to overthink it.

  An alarm sounded, catching me off guard, and I nearly fell backwards off the bed. Tommy’s voice followed immediately. “Hey Paloma, don’t panic. We’ve got a bounty hunter on our trail. Happens sometimes. Dad is bound and determined to get us back. This isn’t about you, and I don’t want you caught in the middle of it, love. Do me a favor and go get in the pod. Bring something to read. This is going to be a bunch of nothing.”

  I took a deep breath and hoped the headache, which immediately came with the alarm, passed. Was I going to have trouble dealing with loud noises for the rest of my life or would this pass with time? There was a bounty hunter. He probably had weapons. I shuddered. I didn’t want to be blown up. I took a deep breath and forced myself to move. I wasn’t going to get in the pod if I sat still and didn’t move.

  Tommy had a tablet on his side table, and I grabbed it before I rushed from the room. Quinn and Keith were both in with Tommy and Clay now, which meant I was the only one being placed in the pod. I stepped inside, and it closed around me.

  I shuddered, drawing my knees to me chest. I didn’t want to be this woman. I didn’t want to be the type of girl who freaked out when things got hard. I never used to be. I made myself small and scrunched against the wall.

  Grabbing the tablet, I scanned through Tommy’s book choices. He had the mysteries I used to read. I’d missed the last five, having not been allowed to read while I was with the Sisters. I opened to the first one I hadn’t read and tried to remember what happened at the end of the last book, but I couldn’t concentrate.

  Why was this taking so long?

  I started to sweat. The pod was cool, like the rest of the ship. My chest felt tight.

  Yeah … I was headed for a full on panic.

  Loud bells sounded all over, followed by three booms. I grabbed my neck. What the hell was that?

  “Hey, sweetheart.” Clay’s voice came over. “Yeah, he’s firing at us. It’s okay. He’s not penetrating our shields, and he won’t. Stay there. All is fine.”

  Why had Clay come on the line instead of Tommy? I took a deep breath. Tommy was probably at the helm, beating back the bounty hunter. A loud explosion sounded, and I shrieked before I covered my mouth.

  A few moments later, Quinn appeared outside my pod. He waved and grinned at me before he opened up my safety vessel to let me out. He yawned. “What a way to start the day, huh? Tommy likes to play with his toys. Boom. Whack. The bounty hunter ran away with his tail between his legs.” He took my hand. “Hope you weren’t afraid, P.”

  “I was. But that seems to be a regular state of existence for me lately. I’m almost getting used to it.”

  “Oh no.” He tugged me against him. “We’ll get you somewhere nice and boring someday. You’ll miss the excitement when the most action we get is Keith dumping the garbage on the kitchen floor.”

  “Hey,” Keith yelled from the control room. “You are much more likely to go around dumping garbage than I am.”

  We walked together into
the control room. Tommy swung around in his chair to greet us while Keith and Clay waved. I sat down in one of the empty seats. “Are we okay?”

  Tommy waved his hand. “Stupid jackass won’t do that again. I knocked out his whole cooling system. He’s going to have to dock to fix it. We won’t see him again.”

  “Phew.”

  Quinn scooted his chair close to mine. He rubbed my back. “Our girl was scared.”

  Clay stapled his fingers. “You like to be busy. I think if this were to happen again, it might be better for Paloma to have a role to play, rather than waiting it out sitting in the pod.”

  Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not compromising on the pod. She needs to be safe.”

  “Sure.” Clay winked at me. “But maybe we could wait to put her in it until it’s really necessary. She didn’t have to be locked up this whole time. We never hit real danger. Teach her how to work the communication system.”

  Tommy sat back. “Okay. We can do that. But I don’t think we can train her until we get to Mars Station. I’m assuming it’s relatively safe there. Want to do it, Paloma?”

  I did like the idea of having a job. I couldn’t cook here, and twiddling my thumbs all day on the shuttle didn’t seem like a lot of fun. Also, if they didn’t shove me in a pod and leave me there, I’d much prefer the adventure.

  “Yes, please.”

  He nodded once. “Sounds good. There’s a place on Mars Station where we can dock and be left alone, right?”

  “Yes, a whole bunch of floors of places. Have you never been there?”

  Quinn continued to rub my back. “Sandlers aren’t welcome on Mars Station. We were never invited. Tommy was going to meet a potential future bride, and she was going to have to leave the station to go meet him on Mars because he couldn’t dock there.”

  The universe must have stopped moving for a second as my brain caught up to what was said. “When was this?”

  Tommy’s eyes widened. “Four fucking years ago. I missed her. I had to save Quinn.”

  “I was supposed to go to Mars four years ago to meet the man my father wanted me to marry. He wouldn’t tell me who. I didn’t because I got sent to the Sisters for, well you guys know what for.” My heart beat so fast I thought it might come out of my chest.

  Tommy leaned forward. “Your dad’s really rich. My father wanted to add to the war chest. He told me to go there, marry you, bring you back to the Sandler part of the galaxy, knock you up, and leave you there. That’s what I planned to do. Yeah, I’m really charming. I know.”

  Clay pointed between the two of us. “You were going to marry Paloma. Alone. We were all going to have singular marriages. He wanted as many grandchildren as possible.”

  Tommy grinned at me and extended his hand. I took it and let him pull me to him. “Was always meant to be. You’re getting a better version of me, I hope. Although I’d have taken one look at you and told Dad I wasn’t dumping you anywhere.”

  Clay scooted over and kissed the back of my neck. “And I’d have been jealous as hell.”

  Keith snorted. “Fuck that. I’d have taken her from you.”

  Quinn reacted last. “I was in such a bad headspace. Who knows what I would have done?”

  “You’re getting a better me, too,” I finally finished. “Such a small universe when it comes down to it.”

  “We’re so happy we found you,” Quinn whispered. “We were lost. We didn’t know it. But we were.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Ouch

  I started to not to feel well during bedtime. I knew I was supposed to go with Keith and that he’d made a big stink about Quinn staying in his own room this time. By the time I got to the bathroom, my stomach cramped so badly I wanted to bend over and never get back up again. It wasn’t a stomach bug. I had my period. End of story.

  My monthly visitor always came with lots of pain. The doctors had checked me for all kinds of conditions, and they’d all been negative. The Sisters thought I sought attention. Bottom line was, I suffered every month like someone stabbed me in the stomach and bled like a gutted pig. I knew I wasn’t crazy, despite the Sisters’ thoughts. My mother and sister suffered the same way.

  After a few minutes, Keith knocked on the door. “Just checking you’re okay.”

  “I-I’m afraid the menu for tonight has to change.” I crawled my way over to the door and swung it open. “I’m going to be out of commission for the next four to six days. Put me somewhere out of the way. I’ll reemerge when I can think again.”

  It also didn’t help that I had none of the sanitary napkins I needed to make this bearable. I was going to have to figure that out, fast.

  He knelt down. “What’s wrong?”

  “I have my period.”

  He reached out with a tentative hand and squeezed my shoulder. “Okay. So, you’re looking at the four guys who grew up with no mother. We have sisters from other mothers, but we’ve never met them. This is a first for me. Even college was all male. Women so rarely get to go to school because of the shortage. What can I do? What do you need? You’re in pain. How do we stop that?”

  “The short answer is this. The run of the mill pain medications don’t cut it. They never have. They do nothing. The stronger ones make me dizzy, and then I vomit. When it comes down to it, I hate puking more than anything else in the universe.”

  He snorted. “I don’t blame you on that. You threw up when you were really out of it, coming out of the med machine. I doubt you remember it.”

  “I don’t, but I’m not surprised. Pain is preferable to puke. You could stick me in the med machine. It’ll just knock me out for six days. I hate that, too. I really need to be left to simply moan and be miserable alone. The Sisters wouldn’t let me rest, kept me busy.”

  Keith touched the side of my face. “Did that help or not?”

  “It was what it was. Nothing helps. Busy in pain. Not busy in pain. I don’t have what I need to not make a mess.”

  He blinked rapidly. “Do you mean, ah, the stuff women use to stop the blood from, um, staining their clothes?”

  I groaned. “I’m making you really uncomfortable. Just leave me here.”

  “Hold on a second.” He left the room, and I lay flat down on my stomach. It didn’t help, but nothing would. One quarter of every month really blew big monkey balls.

  “P?” Quinn came into the bathroom. “I hear you’re not feeling well. Would this help?”

  I looked up. He had a first aid kit, and inside was one delightful sanitary napkin. “For the next three hours or so. Thanks.”

  He handed it to me before he bent over and kissed me on the head. “Get that on, and then we’re getting you out of this bathroom.”

  Quinn left me alone, and I managed to get myself set up and then groaned as I made my way toward the bedroom. All four of them were in the room. It would be comedic if I was in that kind of mood.

  They stared at me like I’d grown a fourth head.

  I crawled into the bed and put my head on the pillow. “Here’s the deal. With no products available for a while, I’m going to pick one blanket and one pillow I can wash several times and you won’t kill me if I make dirty. Is that fine?”

  “No.” Clay ran his hands through his hair. “You’re going to stay right there in clean sheets. I’m going to turn on the replicator. We’ll get you what you need.”

  “Can you afford the draw on that much power?”

  Replicators were great if you had endless power supplies. They were not so wonderful when you had to conserve. I didn’t want them draining the ship for me, not when things seemed so dangerous.

  “We have enough to make what you need.” Tommy shook his head. “And I’m going to equip future models better. Are you sure pain killers don’t work?”

  I shook my head. Why did he have to question me on this when everything hurt? “Not unless you want to hold my head. Does that sound appealing to you Tommy? Watching me puke? Does it?”

  He cleared his throat.
“Um, not in the least. This happens to you every month?”

  Tears escaped my eyes, and I wept into my pillow. “You’re going to put me out of the airlock over this, aren’t you?”

  Clay banged Tommy in the chest, hard, with his fist. “Nice going, dipshit.”

  Tommy paled. “I’m backing away. I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”

  Keith crawled into the bed with me, and to my shock, Quinn got in, too. I loved the feeling, but I knew in two seconds I was going to need to move again. They weren’t going to want to be holding on when I needed to squirm.

  “I can’t stay still.”

  Quinn kissed my shoulder. “I don’t care.”

  I rolled over, pressing my head into his chest, and Keith held me from behind. This lasted a few seconds before I rolled over again. This was going to be a long night.

  Eventually Keith pulled out his tablet, and I managed to convince him to read me the book I’d tried to pay attention to when I’d been in the pod. I listened to the first three chapters before I was out cold.

  I woke later. Quinn and Keith were gone. In their place was Clay, who didn’t notice I’d woken. He read something on his tablet with a strained look on his face. My uterus cramped, and I breathed through my nose. “You okay?”

  His eyes sought mine. “You’re awake.”

  “Just barely. Quinn and Keith get enough of me rolling around?”

  Clay shook his head. “No, actually. I had to force myself in. Tommy wanted to go over some weapons training with them in case of the unlikely event of another attack. They were refusing to go. I pushed them out.”

  “So what put that look on your face?”

  He pointed at the tablet. “There’s a guy on Earth who is suffering pretty badly because my father has targeted him. My father wants the mining rights on his land. Big giant mess. The man’s not going to win, and he should. I wish I could help. Can’t stick my nose in it. We have to stay out of the limelight.”

  I got up on my knees and ignored the way my body protested. “Hard to not be able to do what you can do.”