Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) (38 page)

Zane looked up from where he stood
near the entrance to Lars’ room. He was about to go in and check on him when he heard Zeb’s voice coming from just behind him.

“Hey Zeb,
we put the other man in this room.” He point to the door leading to the room next door to the room that Lars was in. Lars had been put in a secured room that had a two way mirror and camera in it so that the prisoner could be monitored at all times by a security officer. “I will take you to see him. Just give me just a moment to finish this.”

Zeb waited shifting from foot to foot.  He didn’t want to wait any longer to
be let into the room of the survivor. He was expected to get to the bottom of this crazy situation and report back to the council as soon as possible. To think, a Drylon craft had crashed on to the surface of Theron.  The security of the entire planet was in question. He was determined not to leave the room until he had all of the information that he wanted, even if it took all night.

“Alright Zeb
, come on.” Zane went into the door of the secured room that had a two-way mirror. Zeb didn’t know what was going on.  Why was Zane leading him into this room?  “Look, Zeb I am one of your closest and oldest friends.  That being said, I want you to know that I ordered that the identity of the two crash victims remain secret.  I wanted to be the one to break the news to you.”

The room was semi-dark with one security officer sitting in a chair facing a window in the wall. Zeb was confused about why
Zane when take him into this room and not the patient’s room.

“What are we doing in here?” He turned to get an answer out of Zane
, who stepped close to his friend and directed his gaze to the mirror.

“
Zeb, look at the man in the bed,” he said calmly.

Zeb walked all the up to the window and peered through
the glass to see the individual chained to the bed. Emotions from annoyance to shock to anger crossed the commander’s face in a matter of seconds.

“What the FUCK!” Zeb
roared in the quiet room. “What the fuck is he doing here? He is supposed to be DEAD!” He was pacing back and forth now. “This is not possible. I was told that no one got off that damn planet! Someone’s head is going to roll for this.”

Zane moved
in to try and calm his friend, “Zeb, you need to calm down. This is the reason I thought it would be best that you heard the news from me.  You know as well as I do, that we both hoped he was dead, but I distinctly remember telling Avery that we didn’t know his fate.  We didn’t know if he made it away from the planet in time, but now we are certain that he did.”

“Calm down! Calm down you say!
How would you like it, if you just found out the man who kidnapped your mate and planned on doing Gods knows what to her, suddenly showed up. This traitor is solely responsible for killing several of our men and Kurtz’s men. He sold our location to Gatton, Zane. How would you like it if he suddenly showed up out of nowhere, after thinking that he was dead? Tell me Zane, how would you feel?” He was shouting loud enough that Lars turned his head to the mirror.  He must have been able to hear Zeb yelling from behind the glass.

“I would probably fee
l the same way you do right now. However, I can’t let you go in there. The council will have to assign someone else to go in there to question him. I doubt he is going to reveal anything. He’s not saying much other than cursing or throwing insults at Laura.” Zane ran his hand through his short hair.

Zeb’s head snapped to look directly at Zane, “Laura? Why is she going in there with him?”

“Unfortunately, she was the only one of my staff willing to care for him. No one else in the entire infirmary would go in. I got to say, even though she is small, Laura is tough. She throws the insults right back at him.” He grew serious. “You do need to speak to the other survivor, though. He has a lot of information that you could use.”

“Is he
locked up, too?”

“No, he has been…how can I put it? Very cooperative.” This time Zane couldn’t wait to see the reaction
that Zeb was bound to have. Another warrior that he thought was dead and gone would soon re-enter his life, but this case it was a good thing.  “Are you calmed enough to go see him? I don’t want you going in there and flying off the handle like you are very apt to do from time to time.”

Taking a deep and relaxing breath, Zeb said, “Let’s go and get it over with.”

Just outside Lars’ room, they ran into Brylon, who was returning from his trip home to clean up, eat, and check on Emma’s rewash. Zeb asked, “How’s Emma.  Is she better?”

“Emma is great.  She is getting stronger by the hour.  I should
be able to take her home today,” Brylon said.

Zane winked at Brylon behind Zeb’s back. “Brylon, would you mind coming with us to go visit the other survivor. Zeb would like to talk with him and I might need you to help me restrain him, if you know what I mean.”

Brylon set down his cup and followed the two men to the room that housed the other injured man rescued from the crash. “Sure thing, not a problem,” h
e replied while trying to keep a straight face.

Zane
walked straight into a room with an open door. Zeb was surprised at this. Shouldn’t this man be locked in a room as well? Today was turning out to be one of the strangest days he had encountered in a long time.

“This
guy is not in the best condition, he has been through a lot so just remember that when you talk to him.” Zane pulled back the curtain that separated the bed from the rest of the room and then stood to the side so that Zeb could walk past him.

Zeb walked with an attitude of confidence after Zane assured him that this man would be easy to talk too. He approached the bed and began to talk to the man lying there, “How are you doing sir?”

Zeb’s eyes looked over the frail man
that was lying in the bed. He could see evidence that the body of the man used to massive and strong, but now it was thin and emaciated. He couldn’t place it, but something in the man’s face looked very familiar to him.  It wasn’t until he came to look upon the man’s eyes, eyes that were exactly the same as his stared back at him. The patient’s eyes that had the exact same gold flecks around the purple irises as his did. He drew in his brows in complete and utter confusion.

“It can’t be,” he whispered. “It
just can’t be.”

Zirlo sat up in the bed as straight as he could as he watched his son walk into his room and over to his bed. He wasn’t going to say a word until the son he left behind ten years realized for himself who he was. For ten long years he had dreamed of seeing his son and wife again. For ten long years he worked his ass off in the Drylon prison camp not knowing if they had even survived the war.

“My son,” Zirlo said in a
n unsteady whispered voice.

Zeb was paralyzed. He didn’t know what to do or say. This was one of the few times in his life he didn’t know how to react. He was too afraid to move or look away because, the image of his father, sitting on the bed before him, might disappear from him forever. He had to be imagining all of this. He remembered when he and his mother had spread his father’s ashes in one of his favorite places after the Drylons, for some unknown reason, had sent the remains of his father back to them with the threat of doing the same to other Theron warriors. Could this really be his father?

“Zeb, it is me, your father.”

“You…are…dead,” Zeb stated.

Zirlo’s laugh hadn’t changed
over the years that he was gone, and the sound of it had caused a new look to cover the features his son’s face.

“I assure you, my son, I am not dead
. Zane and Brylon can attest to that.”

Zane stepped forward, “Zeb, I ran tests on your father just to confirm who he is. That is your father sitting right there.
Go on, Go to him.” He gave Zeb a gentle shove forward.

Even though Zeb was the commander of all Ther
on warriors, at this moment he felt like a boy again. His father, that until recently was believed dead, was alive and well in this room. He tentatively reached his hand to touch his father’s hand. Once he realized that the man that was before him was solid flesh and bone, he grabbed the older man in an embrace that no one in the room would soon forget.

Both men were
openly crying and sobbing in each other’s arms.

“May the Gods be blessed, I am home again,
” Zirlo said through his tears.

****

Emma woke periodically to find Brylon by her side. Once he was even curled up on the tiny couch that was positioned under the window. She knew there was no way he could be comfortable on the tiny thing, because he was such an enormous man. Nevertheless, her heart swelled with joy at the sight of him.

He had come for her
, just like her heart had told her numerous times out in the forest, he would. The feelings of her heart and thoughts from her brain had fought so often while she wandered through the forest. Now, that the fight was over for good. She knew in her heart that this man, the man who had saved her from such an unhappy life on Earth, truly loved her and wanted to be with her forever. She had just regretted that it had taken her so long to realize the truth of it. But, now she was resolved to push all those bad old memories away, and fill her heart and mind with new ones.

“Brylon?” she
called out while he was sleeping on the tiny sofa. He stirred for a moment and then settled back down into his awkward bent position on the couch. “Brylon?” This time she called just a tad bit louder, startling him awake. His head snapped to the side to see her watching him.

“Emma!” He was on his feet in the next instant and over to her bed. “You are
awake! How are you feeling?” He reached for her hand and held on to it tightly.

“I am tired, but other than that I
’m feeling much better.”

“My love, you scared the hell out of me. When I found you, your body was burning up with fever.
I was so afraid that I’d lose you. Why did you run away from me?” His eyes were full of the emotion that he was struggling to contain.

“I didn’t run away. I got lost when I went for a walk after you left. I was so angry with you.
I just needed to get some air.”

She scooted over and patted the mattress for him to join her on the bed.  As he sat, he asked,
“But, why would you go for a walk in the forest at night?”

“I didn’t mean to go very far, but by the time I realized I had gone too far, I was hopelessly lost. I was trying to find my way back when I came across a very ugly and mad
pig looking animal.” She watched his face as she spoke. “I have got to say. Your planet has some seriously ugly and mean animals that I don’t ever want to cross paths with again!”

“We think that you
came across an olaffub based on the tracks that we found following yours. Olaffubs are one of the meanest and rarest animals in the forest. It was very unusual for it to be found that close to where we live. Most of the time the olaffub stays deep in the forest and out of sight because there are so few of them left. I don’t know how you did it, but that animal could have killed you.”

“I didn’t escape intentionally, you know. The damn thing kept chasing me and wouldn’t give up. I was at my wits end when I found
myself falling a long way down that cliff. Thankfully the pig didn’t follow me. That’s how I injured my leg.” She pointed to the bandage that covered her leg.

“I saw the gash on your leg
when I found you in the forest with Zirlo. Zane was able to clean and heal it when we got you here, but it was the fever that we had to fight. Your friend Laura is really smart. Zane didn’t know what she was doing with all that ice.  It turns out that he learned a lot from her knowledge of Earth tricks to bring down a fever.” He smiled at the memory of her covered in ice and shivering.

“I don’t understand.”

“Laura had covered you in sheets, and then put ice over your entire body. She told us that your fever was so high, that if we didn’t get it down quickly, you could have suffered other health problems. I am so thankful that she has the knowledge of human medicine. She has become such a great asset to Zane and the rest of us. I will never be able to repay her for saving you.”

The careful control of his emotions was starting to break.  She could see the tears as they started falling from his eyes
. She had never seen a grown man cry. Emma watched as this massive, fierce, and kind-hearted man struggled to contain what he was feeling for her. Never in her life had anyone shown her such love and commitment, and now after all she had been through, she was going to give this man her heart.

“Brylon,” she asked in a soft, barely audible voice.

“Yes?”

“Kiss me?” She smiled at the smile that spread across his face.

“Your wish is my command.”       

“Brylon, would you please treating me like I can’t do anything for myself. I am fine!” Emma complained for the hundredth time.