Bad Nerd Rising (7 page)

“Have you seen Dr. Morrison?” Aleksi asked
one of the servants.

“No, Your Majesty,” the man replied, after
thinking for a moment.

“If you see her, could you please tell her
I’m looking for her?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the man
replied.

Aleksi quickened his pace. He headed for the
lab. In the two days she’d been living in his home, he could
usually locate her in the laboratory. But today, she was nowhere in
residence.

As he glanced around,
Aleksi saw there was
no one
in the lab. Where had they all gone? The fact that
none of them had bothered to tell someone where they were going was
a problem. He might have to address that.

Surely they were fine.
Nothing could happen to four laboratory personnel. What did he fear
anyway? Aliens beaming them up? Aleksi snorted.
Not likely
. He paced back into the
lab, and glanced around the room.

Similar odors to those he had encountered in
Tia’s lab in the States assaulted his nose, but he moved past the
glass fronted housing filled with a pile of plates, and the scents
dissipated a bit. He certainly didn’t want to linger in front of
the incubator. Tia had explained that to him earlier. That’s where
the main lab stenches emanated from.

One of the cleaning crew passed through the
lab. “Riggs, have you seen Tia?”

The man nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. They
went on a field trip.”

“A field trip, what is that?”

“I don’t now, Your Highness, but I know they
all headed over to the hospital,” Riggs replied. He shoved his cap
further back on his head and turned back to propelling his broom
along the floor.

The hospital.
Of course
. Aleksi lunged
for a phone.

“This is Prince Aleksi. May I please speak
with Graham Wellington?”

“One moment, Your Highness.” He frowned at
the phone, but waited until the hospital director answered.

“
Hello, Aleksi, what may I
do to help you?” Graham was a few years younger than his father,
but they had been friends through all of Aleksi’s growing up years.
Graham considered him another kid, and treated him exactly as he
did his own offspring. Refreshing for Aleksi, who found the
Your Majesty
and
Your Highnesses
a bit
wearying at times.

“Is Tia there?”

“She is. They all are. Tia is teaching them
some microbiology facts.”

Thank
goodness
.

Graham cleared his throat. “They didn’t
inform you where they planned to go?”

“No,” Aleksi said around tight lips. “They
must have forgotten.”

“From what I could gather, it would appear
they’re a spontaneous bunch,” Graham ventured.

“I gathered that.”

“Since my wife is involved in that bunch,
I’m thinking she was probably part of the problem,” Graham said,
speaking of Maria.

Aleksi laughed. “Your wife is going to pike
your head if she hears you say that.”

“Yes. Alas, I’m used to her threats.” Aleksi
could hear the laughter in his voice.

“Perhaps you could tell me why the
laboratory bunch from here is visiting the hospital?”

“I met with them when they first arrived.
Dr. Morrison seems very capable,” Graham said.

“She is.”

“Yes. I believe she wanted to see some of
the patients, rather than merely read about them. So the others
brought her over here so she could actually observe the patients
and speak with the doctors and nurses.”

“Is she able to communicate?” Since they
spoke a combination of Russian and French in his country, Aleksi
held his breath.

“Her French is passable. I’m afraid her
Russian is paltry. She admitted to such. But everyone here is
proficient in English.”

“Of course.” Aleksi stared at the nearest
lab bench and realized he didn’t know the name of anything sitting
there. Not one piece of equipment was familiar to him. He could
speak his native language, in addition to French and Russian
separately, English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and
Italian without an accent, but please don’t ask him to explain the
name or function of any of the equipment Tia used.

That probably set them on equal footing. “Do
you believe she needs a translator?”

Graham laughed. “My wife is there. She’s
rather proficient at talking.”

“Now I can blackmail you,” Aleksi pointed
out with a grin.

“Maria is well aware of my comments about
her. She takes it out on me later,” Graham said, sounding perfectly
happy with his “punishments.”

Aleksi wanted that kind of relationship with
a woman. Graham and Maria were best friends who respected and
admired each other. They teased and laughed, but they also loved
without measure.

“How long do you think they’ll be?”

“I haven’t any idea. It appears Tia is
learning as much as she can about how the illness is displaying.
She was smart to come here to the hospital. She is currently
interviewing the patients. Those who are able to be
interviewed.”

Aleksi understood the catch in his friend’s
voice. “Do you believe she needs more time?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be happy to ask her. Is
there a rush?”

“No, other than the fact that her aunt and
uncle have arrived to visit. And I haven’t been able to produce
her. I believe they’re growing suspicious.” Aleksi bit the inside
of his cheek.

“Could be a problem.”

“Yes. The man is a United States Navy
Admiral.”

Graham whistled. “Not someone to annoy.”

“I’d rather take my chances with him. He
called his wife General Emma, and I’m thinking she’s probably going
to be rather dangerous if her chick doesn’t present herself
soon.”

“I’ll deliver the message in person,” Graham
promised.

“Thank you, I appreciate your efforts.”

“See what I do to save you?”

“I understand, and thank you in advance,”
Aleksi said dryly.

He heard a knock on the door, and turned in
time to see Tia’s aunt and uncle enter the room. General Emma, a
small silver haired lady with a no nonsense attitude, sweet
disposition, and the personality of a hurricane glanced around the
room with a knowing eye. “Yes, it looks like Tia’s been here,” she
said complacently.

The admiral glanced around but didn’t
comment. Aleksi watched the amusement play around his lips and that
helped to ease him a little.

“Tia and her lab help are over at the
hospital. The hospital director plans to send them back here,
immediately.”

General Emma smiled at him. She was a
breathtaking woman. “That sounds like our Tia.”

“You’ve known Tia all her life?”

“Of course. I remember her birth.”

“Emma tends to be everywhere at once,” Rich
O’Riley finally commented.

His wife smirked, and her eyes promised
retribution, but the man didn’t seem worried in the least. Aleksi
realized O’Riley reminded him of Graham. And Emma reminded him of
Maria.

A few minutes later, he heard footsteps
patter down the hall, and turned in time to see Tia burst through
the door. “General Emma!” she enthused and launched into her aunt’s
arms.

She hugged her aunt with a fierce hold that
bespoke of love before releasing her aunt and hugging her uncle. He
slipped a curl of hair behind her ear. “Hi, pumpkin,” he said with
a smile.

“When did you get here?” Tia was all
animation and motion, her eyes beaming with pride and joy at seeing
her relatives.

“A few minutes ago,” Emma replied.

“What brings you here?”

“I’m doing an inspection of a base not far
from here. The general knew you were close, so she decided to come
along.”

Tia’s left brow rose. “She decided to come
along,” she repeated, with an imp in her eye, and twitching lips.
She turned to him. “That means she decreed it.”

Aleksi loved the way her eyes twinkled and
laughed. She looked happy and content, and he hoped at least a
fraction of that was because he was in the room.

He turned to the couple. “You will be
staying the night, or even the week with us, we hope?”

Tia’s relatives exchanged glances before
Emma turned to him. “We hope for at least one night.”

“Possibly three. Although we can find a
hotel room,” Rich murmured. He wrapped an arm around Tia and
squeezed her again. Aleksi knew the woman, not the man, was her
birth relative. So he was impressed to see there was mutual
affection between Tia and Rich.

“Absolutely not,” Aleksi said firmly. “You
are guests of Tia, who is helping us. You must stay here.”

Tia beamed at the couple, her happiness at
seeing them nearly palatable. When the rest of her staff arrived,
she took great pains to introduce everyone.

“It’s nearly time for supper, perhaps we
should break to clean up?” Aleksi finally interrupted the animated
chatter between the women. He’d have liked to watch the
interactions longer, so fascinating were they, but at this point,
they might be late.

“Oh, no, I hadn’t realized the time. I’d
better go home.” Maria exclaimed and glanced at the clock mounted
on a wall.

“Your husband knows where you are,” Aleksi
reminded her, tongue-in-cheek.

She batted him with a motherly hand before
grabbing up her things. Tia raised an eyebrow in question. Aleksi
grinned. “Maria’s been known to forget all about dinner when she
gets involved in an interesting project here in the lab.”

“Cease and desist telling all my secrets,”
she warned on her way out the door.

“I’m sure Graham will have already prepared
a wonderful meal for you. He’s waiting for you to come home before
everything dries out.”

She smacked him this time as she swept past
him, but he could hear her laughter as she raced down the hall
toward the door to the parking lot. “She’ll never make it in time,”
Helena said, glancing at the clock.

“Graham’s used to her being late,” Aleksi
said with a shrug.

“Not this late.”

“He’s still at work also, but they have that
hospital dinner tonight,” Helena said.

“Remember when we found that mutated yeast?”
Jorge inserted.

Helena’s eyes widened. “Oh yes, that was
fascinating. We were here until when?”

“Well after nine,” Jorge said and pursed his
lips as he stared at the ceiling.

Aleksi saw Tia’s eyes widen. “Mutated
yeast?” Her interest shone nearly like a beacon. If she’d had ears
that could perk up, they would be now.

“Most interesting thing we’ve seen in a few
years,” Helena said.

“Did you save some samples?”

“Of course,” Jorge said and stared her down,
like she should know better.

“We might need to revisit those,” Tia said,
and glanced around the lab with a proud smile.

At least it didn’t take much to keep her
happy.

Now he just needed to maintain the status
quo for a while.

***

“Aleksi’s mother is about as nasty as she
can get,” Tia whispered to her aunt on their way up the stairs to
the bedchambers. She tried to keep her voice low, but was pleased
that Aleksi and her Uncle Rich seemed involved in a
conversation.

“Oh?” Emma stared at her in surprise. “I
thought Princess Gracia was purported to be among the friendliest
of royalty.”

“You’re joking, right?” Tia
raised her eyebrows.
No
way
.

“No, I’m not. I read that somewhere a few
years ago.”

“The woman’s an infectious disease.”

“Really, dear, I’m certain she can’t be that
bad.”

“Wait and see, Aunt Emma,” Tia warned. If
her aunt expected a joyous welcome from the cholera woman, she was
in for a surprise. Not a pleasant one, either.

Emma patted her shoulder, but didn’t
comment. A wise woman, her Aunt Emma. Tia thought maybe she should
strive to act more like her aunt. Few women could conduct
themselves so well.

Tia frowned. “Emma, you’re not allergic to
makeup, are you?”

Emma stared at her for a moment, her
eyebrows lifting in question. “Not that I’m aware of, love.
Why?”

“You like the color pink, too, I’ll
bet.”

Her aunt wrinkled her nose. “Not
particularly. I certainly don’t dislike it, but I wouldn’t buy a
garment in that color. Why?”

“I’m allergic to makeup, I hate the color
pink, and cologne and most perfumes make me sneeze.”

“That’s strange, since you’re used to
odiferous scents,” Emma said, commenting on the last part of her
statement.

“Yes, you’d think my nose would be
grateful.”

“Why are you concerned about being allergic
to makeup and not liking pink?”

Tia noticed she had General Emma’s complete
attention. A bit daunting when a force of nature focused on you.
She took a step back and chewed her lip as she surveyed her
aunt.

“Love, I’m going with Tia for a moment, I’ll
be back, soon,” Emma told Rich, and flapped a hand at him. Tia
didn’t miss the promise her aunt’s eyes sent to Rich. She also bet
Emma had never once been deemed a nerd in all her life.

Why did life have to be so unfair?

“Okay, honey, tell me what the problem is,”
Emma instructed. And because she was General Emma, and her dearest
aunt, Tia spilled it. “Emma, I’m a nerd.”

“Have you been speaking to your brothers
again?”

Tia arched an eyebrow. “They are my
brothers. I thought I was supposed to speak to them.”

“You may speak to them, you may not believe
what they say,” General Emma corrected in that voice no one smart
argued with.

“Oh. What’s the difference?”

“Tia, of all the nieces, and there are how
many?” General Emma paused to count on her fingers. “Never mind,
there are a lot of you, and out of all of them, I’d say you’re one
of the most beautiful.”