Spell Checked (25 page)

Dr. Thomas insisted on a room near Alexis and Gemma, although Beck knew that Alexis would most likely spend most of her nights with her security team in the guest house.  It took the rest of the day to get everyone settled in.  Beck was glad that his chef and head of housecleaning thought to hire a couple more people ahead of time to deal with the increased number of personnel at the estate.  It was something he did not have the time to do personally.

Beck sat on the couch with Mae lying across his chest.  “I am glad to have you home again, I missed being able to hold you.”

“I’ve missed you too Beck.”  Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, the ring on her finger started to get warm and vibrate; she closed her eyes to see a vision.  Beck was on the patio next to the oak she grew and in his arms he held a small child.  Mae could feel Beck’s joy as he handed the laughing babe to her.  Then the vision was gone, she could hear Beck calling her name as she opened her eyes again.

“Mae, are you okay? You scared me for a minute there.”

She sat up and turned to look at him.  “Beck, I just had a vision…We were on the patio and you were holding a baby in your arms…Our baby!”  She was so excited she could barely speak.

He smiled at her, knowing that he too, had seen their son.  “While I was wearing your ring around my neck, I saw the same vision, twice.  Meredith thinks it is our future being revealed in the ring.”  Beck put his arm around Mae and pulled her back to his chest.

“I hope she is right; we seemed so happy,” Mae sighed.  “I’ve wanted to talk to you about something.”  Mae’s mood had gone from happy to somber.

“Then ask me?”

Mae held his hand and snuggled against him.  “Gemma is all the family I have and it pains me to think that someday she’ll grow old and leave me…Can’t you turn her into a vampire?” she asked with much trepidation, aware that Beck feared the bond it would create.

Beck kissed the top of her head.  “I have also given it much thought.  But, there are complications, such as bonding to deal with.  Plus, I do not know what it might do to her if you try to turn her.  I promise to give Nikola a call and see if he has any suggestions.”

“You know she would make a good vampire, she is very business driven,” Mae added like a sales pitch.

Beck let out a small chuckle, “You do not have to sell me on the idea, I agree that you need her enough for her to be turned…It is just a matter of who will do it that needs to be worked out.”

Mae finally let herself relax in Beck’s arms.  Her mind kept drifting to the vision of the baby and her possible future.  All that was left for her to do was to set a marriage date.  Not that she was old fashioned about having a child out of wedlock, but she knew it would bring Beck joy…and as much as she hated to admit, it would make her happy too.  “Beck, I want to get married at Lough Currane,” she blurted out.

“Okay…just let me know when.”  Beck was unsure where Mae was going with this conversation, she had told him more than once she was not ready to get married.

“Next month.” Mae did not want to wait months or years to achieve the inevitable.

“Do not tease me Mae,” Beck sighed, playing with her hair, practically ignoring the fact that she just agreed to marry him.

Mae sat up and smiled at him.  “I’m not,” she purred and raised her eyebrows.

Beck kissed her long and hard in his excitement.  Gemma walked into the room and cleared her throat to get their attention.  “Dr. Thomas will be down in a minute to work on getting your legs moving again. What are you two smiling about?” she asked, sitting in the chair across from them.

Beck stood and grabbed the wheelchair.  “Good, she is going to need them to walk down the aisle next month,” he smiled, knowing he let the cat out of the bag, picking up Mae and set her in the wheelchair.

Gemma threw her arms around Mae, “We have our work cut out for us, don’t we?”  Gemma loved weddings so much that it surprised Mae when she went into marketing with her father instead of becoming a wedding planner.

“Now let’s not go overboard, Gemma, you know how I like to keep things simple,” Mae reminded her.

“Gemma, I think you should go completely overboard…Money is no object.”  Beck wanted Mae to have a dream wedding.  He envisioned her walking down the aisle in a beautiful white gown with flowers in her hair.

Mae looked at Beck as though he had lost his mind.  “Do you have any idea what you just did?  You just let a kid loose in a candy store with a credit card,” she frowned.

Beck and Gemma started laughing.  “I trust Gemma to make it a day you will always remember.” He wanted it to be perfect in a way that only a good friend could accomplish.

“Trust me Beck, when she has you riding bareback on a white horse, wearing a kilt, I won’t be the only one who’ll always remember it,” Mae shot back at him sarcastically.

He stopped laughing and looked at Gemma, “You would not?”

Gemma smiled from ear to ear while Beck pushed Mae out onto the patio to watch the sunset. “It was not something I have given much thought to, but now that Mae has mentioned it…I can visualize you dressed in a kilt, riding in on your trusted steed to marry the girl of your dreams.  Sigh…Isn’t that every girl’s dream?”  Gemma dramatized for added effect.

“Okay Mae, I see your point…What have I gotten myself into?”  It had not even been five minutes and Beck was already starting to second guess his decision to put Gemma in charge of planning the wedding.

Meredith and Aidan were already seated on the patio with a bottle of wine.  Gemma sat with them and poured herself a glass then leaned back in the chair.  Mae thought it odd that it didn’t seem to bother Gemma that Aidan and Meredith were a couple now.  Soon Dr. Thomas joined them on the patio.  He sipped on a glass of wine, watching Alexis exchanging combat techniques at the edge of the woods with one of the guards.

Beck pushed Mae closer to the table and poured her a drink. He sat across from the doctor and asked him, “Dr. Thomas, how much do you know medically about vampires?”

“Please, call me Aaron.  I know that Mae should have healed herself once the silver was removed from her system.  My theory is that she is having the same complications any vampire might have when they need to feed.”

“Did she not need blood during surgery?” Beck questioned.

“Surprisingly, no.  She had already healed herself enough not to need any.”  Aaron had become totally engrossed with this medical mystery and stopped watching Alexis.

Beck finished off the wine in his glass in one gulp and set the glass back on the table.  “I am going to call Nikola this evening on the teleconference system.  He might be able to shed some light on this subject.  I thought you might want to join me, I could use your medical expertise.”

“I’d love to…I’ve heard he is quite knowledgeable when it comes to the medical anomalies of vampires.  Anything I might learn from him would be like icing on the cake.”  Aaron prided himself on being able to medically treat all kinds, humans, witches and vampires alike, so any information he gained from Nikola would be a tremendous help to his work.

Alexis made her way across the lawn and sat at the patio table with everyone else. “Can I get a beer?” she yelled, hoping the kitchen staff heard her and would bring one out.  She looked at her arms and realized she was a sweaty, dirty mess, and probably smelled just as bad.  She got up from her seat, walked over to the water hose, and started to rinse herself off.

Aaron just sat there staring at her as if she were the most fascinating thing on earth.  Even when she drank from the hose, it did not deter his affections towards her.  He leaned towards Beck and asked in a low tone, “Are those guns real?” pointing to the weapons on her back and hip.

Aidan spoke, before Beck could answer the question, “Not only are they real, but if you get on her bad side, she will most likely shoot you with them.  I hear she eats her exes when she’s done with them,” Aidan teased.

“Stop trying to scare the poor doctor, Aidan, she’s not as bad as that.  You just have to get to know her,” Meredith said in her defense.

Aaron got up and walked into the house, when he came back out, he was holding two cold beers.  He walked over to where Alexis was still rinsing off and handed her a beer.  She turned off the hose, downed the beer Aaron gave her and let out a huge belch.  She then took the beer he was drinking from his hand and drank it on the way back to the table.

“He has no idea what he is about to get into,” Beck laughed before Alexis sat back down at the table.

Alexis looked at Beck, fully aware that he was laughing at her. “What are you laughing at princess?” she snapped, pulling the gun from her hip holster and removed the clip.  She checked the chamber for stray bullets, before laying it down on the table.

“I think you have an admirer,” Beck whispered, pointing to Aaron before he got back to the patio table.

Alexis remove the gun from her back and started to dry it with the edge of her shirt. “Yeah…right.  I can’t see myself with Dr. Fancy Pants, please don’t encourage him.”

Beck felt a need to intervene before Alexis could devastate the poor man’s ego any further.  As soon as Aaron stepped onto the patio, Beck used the teleconference call to promptly excuse themselves from the table, leaving Alexis little room to insult the poor misguided man before they left.

“Alexis, why deny the inevitable?  We all know you secretly have the hots for Dr. Thomas,” Aidan joked.

Alexis tilted her head and rolled her eyes at Aidan, before responding, “One more word from you Aidan and I’m going to kick your ass.”

“I think we could even hear you and him moaning in the back of the ambulance on the ride over here.  Isn’t that right Mae?”

Mae looked at Aidan and shook her head.  “I’m staying out of this.”

Alexis erupted in anger, “That’s it Aidan, you better run.”

Aidan jumped out of his chair and took off across the lawn, but he didn’t have a chance.  Alexis had him face down on the ground with his arm twisted halfway up his back, before he could make it across the yard.  Meredith sat back in her chair, sipping her glass of wine as she and Mae watched Alexis make Aidan cry like a girl, then pleaded for her to release him.  Mae finally asked, “Aren’t you going to intervene on your boyfriend’s behalf?”

Meredith took a deep breath, set her wine glass back on the table and looked over to Mae.   “No, no I’m not.”

“Beckett, I was not expecting to hear from you so soon.  How may I help you?” Nikola asked, getting right down to business, as was his nature.

“We are having a bit of a medical issue here, I hoped you could help.  This is Dr. Thomas, Mae’s physician.  He has a theory on why Mae is not healing like a vampire and I wanted to get your input before we proceed.” Beck moved out of the way and let Aaron take the spot in front of the monitor.

Aaron was awed to be speaking to the great Nikola Tesla as he nervously told him his theory.  “From what I know about vampires, you need to feed on human blood at least every couple of months in order to maintain your health; otherwise, you can become anemic and lose your ability to heal effectively. She has gone twenty seven years without a feeding, nor has she been recently transfused…I believe she needs to feed.”

Nikola put his hand to his chin and raised his brow.  “Your theory has merit, but that is not the only problem…Her vampire blood has been suppressed for so long she needs to feed on another vampire.  My suggestion is for Beck to feed off a human and then allow Mae to feed off him shortly thereafter…that should kill two birds with one stone.”  Nikola leaned back in his chair as if stating the obvious.

‘Eureka!’ was clearly written across Aaron’s face at that moment. “That makes perfect sense, not only is she deficient from not feeding on human blood, but her body needs fortification from the additional vampire blood.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking. Now, if you could give me a moment to speak to Beckett alone,” Nikola requested politely.

“Certainly,” nodded Aaron before getting up and leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

Nikola shifted to a more relaxed position in his chair, “That is not the only thing that is troubling you, my old friend.  So, out with it already.”

“I need a favor from you, Nikola.  Mae only has one person that she calls family and that is her best friend, Gemma.  After much discussion, I feel Gemma would make a good addition to the vampire population.”  Beck felt at a loss for words.

“Then turn her Beck.  I don’t see the problem there,” Nikola remarked, trying to force Beck’s hand.

“The problem is that Mae’s mixed blood may be dangerous as far as turning someone is concerned and I have no wish to bond, even slightly, with Gemma.  I figured since you practically wrote the book on turning humans to vampires, you might consider turning her for us.”  Beck finally relaxed his shoulders and sat back in his seat having said what he was thinking.

Nikola let out a deep breath, “That is indeed an unusual request; and this Gemma, does she want to be turned?”

“Yes, she is very receptive to the idea.”

Nikola paused for a moment before speaking.  “I was just about to leave London.  I suppose I can make a stop in Ireland before I head home.  Although, I think you should be the one to do it and not me,” Nikola chastised.

Beck was relieved that Nikola agreed to turn Gemma.  “Thank you and I will see you soon then.”