The Fifth Kingdom (21 page)

Contrary to the nurse’s dictate, Deanna stayed at Bill’s side during the course of a fretful night and day.

Bill’s one moment of consciousness earlier was followed by long hours of coma-like sleep with an occasional spurt of wakefulness. Even though Deanna understood the rest was necessary to rebuild his body, she worried each time that he slipped away that he wouldn’t return.

A lingering remnant of her past experience with her mother.

Her mother, she thought, recalling those moments in the surgical waiting room and the many visits she had made into the ICU to check up on her. It had been so long since she’d had a mother’s touch and concern. Her father, as loving as he was, had never possessed a maternal gift.

But while that touch was comforting now, Deanna sensed it was fleeting. No one could change that much overnight. For the moment she basked in that attention and caring, needing it to sustain her as she in turn supported Bill during the seemingly endless struggle.

She was half dozing in her chair, having lost track of night and day in the enclosed environment of the ICU when he woke again. This time his gaze was sharper and his skin had lost some of its pallor. A healthy flush of color worked across his face and as she leaned forward, he gripped her hand with greater strength.

“You’re still here.” His voice retained the huskiness of sleep and dryness, but his tone was more robust.

“I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.”

A smile worked across his lips and up into his eyes. “Maybe we should make that official.”

It took her a moment to realize what he was saying. She shook her head and with a chuckle said, “Do you think the base chaplain can help us out once
Papi
gets here?”

“Is that a yes?” he teased, aware that her answer was as unromantic as his proposal, but then again, nothing about their relationship had been ordinary.

“If that was a proposal, then it was a ‘yes’,” she kidded back and just to make sure there was no doubt, leaned forward and kissed him to give him a sampling of all the love she would share with him in the future.

The sound of a nearby footfall broke them apart.

ADIC Williams stood at the foot of the bed, hands clasped before him in that stance that screamed law enforcement. Her mother was beside him, wringing her hands and slightly agitated.

“I see that you’re feeling better, Special Agent,” Bill’s boss said, only a hint of humor in his voice.

“Yes, sir. I’m a little stronger,” Bill replied, his tone losing its earlier playfulness as demanded by the intrusion of work.

“Strong enough to be debriefed?”

“Can’t this wait until he’s rested a little more?” Miranda asked, meeting Deanna’s gaze. There was no doubt her mother was worried about something in addition to Bill’s health.

Luckily the duty nurse came in, a different one than from the night before and clearly pissed that the three of them seemed to be ignoring all the ICU rules.

“One visitor. Fifteen minutes. All of you,” she stressed, cementing a hand on one hip and glaring at each of them for determined seconds to reinforce her statement.

“Let’s go, Mr. Williams,” her mother said, looping her arm through the ADIC’s and urging him to leave.

“Just another minute, please,” Deanna said, clutching Bill’s hand firmly.

“Please,” Bill echoed and the nurse relented. Pointing to both Williams and her mother, she instructed, “You two. Go.”

With a forceful yank, Miranda dragged Williams from the room. When the nurse was likewise gone, Bill glanced at her and whispered, “What did you tell Williams?”

“Not just Williams. Two military men grilled us as well. Colonel Richards and a Mexican army commander. Mendoza. Do you know them?”

A single shake of his head provided his initial answer. “Did you say anything about the stone?”

“No. I didn’t want to do anything without speaking to you first,” she advised and he nodded.

“Thanks. I’d like to get a read on these guys before we decide what to do.”

“Minute’s almost up,” the nurse called out from the door of the ICU.

Deanna rose and squeezed his hand, still reluctant to leave him even if he was doing better. Bending, she kissed him and after, said in a confidential tone, “The stone is safe and sound. We’ll wait for you to talk about what to do.”

“Come back again as soon as the dragon lady will let you,” he said and slipped his hand behind her neck. Held her close for a very vital kiss which eased some of her concerns about his physical state.

Judging from the kiss, he was feeling a lot better.

When they separated, she teased, “I’ll be back soon, but if you kiss me like that again, fifteen minutes with you won’t be enough.”

The sweetness of her kiss eased him into another round of restfulness, providing him with the time needed to build up his strength. When he roused the next time, the nurse who had chased out Deanna, Miranda and his boss was beside him. She was making notations on a chart and when he woke, she reached for his wrist and took his pulse, as if not trusting the equipment to which he was wired.

“Much stronger,” she replied and closed the chart with a metallic snap. “You’re a lucky man, Special Agent.”

He tried to shift in bed, but pain lanced through his midsection. “Not sure if lucky is the right word,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” she chastised and he had to smile because her no-nonsense bluster was on the money.

“You’re right. Can you help me sit up, please?”

With a brisk nod, she went to his other side and found the controls for the bed. Tucked them into his hand and helped him as he fumbled with the controls. With the push of a button, the bed slowly ground to a slightly raised position.

“Thank you,” he said and the nurse finally offered him a smile in return.

“You’re welcome and since you’re so polite, let me warn you. I’m supposed to call your boss as soon as you’re awake again.”

“Do you think you could track down my fiancée first? Please?” For good measure, he offered her what he hoped was a boyish grin and not a grimace.

She narrowed her gaze as she shrewdly glanced at him. “Your fiancée? Is that your ring on her finger?”

“Kind of. It was for the job at first, but she just said ‘yes.’”

One edge of her mouth lifted with the hint of a smile. “Work fast, don’t you?”

Bill thought about the last few days and how much his life had changed since he had stood outside the door of Deanna’s classroom. Considering how long it had taken him to get there, he wasn’t sure fast was the right word. Fated seemed somehow more appropriate.

“You could say it was meant to be,” he replied.

The nurse chuckled and while shaking her head, walked out of the ICU to make her calls.

The nurse had obviously heeded his request when Deanna appeared with Miranda just a few minutes later and there was no sign of ADIC Williams and the two military men Deanna had mentioned.

“You’re looking a lot better,” Deanna said and she kissed his cheek.

Miranda took a spot along his other side and squeezed his hand. “So glad, my son.”

‘My son’ sounded so foreign and yet welcome. As he perused both women there seemed to be a peaceful understanding that hadn’t been there before and he was glad for it. There had been too much hurt between them and as well as anyone, he understood how that pain could hold someone back.

Until Deanna he had allowed that misery to keep him from forming a bond to anyone.

Bill had little time to consider what that change might mean when ADIC Williams walked in with his military companions.

“Glad to see you’re looking better, Special Agent,” he said while he passed his alert gaze over the two women at his side. “Doctors Vasquez and Adams. I wasn’t expecting the two of you to be here right now.”

“We came to see how my fiancé is doing,” Deanna said and eased her hand into his.

Williams shot up one eyebrow while the two men on either side of him peered at each other uneasily.

“Fiancé? Is this true?” Williams asked and Bill nodded. “It’s true, sir. If it’s possible, we’d like to find a chaplain to marry us before we return home.”

“Don’t you think that’s rushing things, Bill?” he asked, the tone more personal than professional.

Considering that he’d seemingly survived multiple lifetimes in the course of the last day, somehow it didn’t feel so rushed. “Sometimes you just know that’s it’s time to do the right thing,” he replied, shooting Deanna a quick glance.

The Army colonel coughed uncomfortably and stepped forward. “Well, that’s quite romantic, but we need to ask you a few questions. In private if you don’t mind.”

Bill nodded. After giving him quick kisses and hugs, the two women departed, leaving him to face the trio of stern-faced men.

The questions that followed were much like he expected.

“After you got away from the PM cell, did you go into the tomb?” Colonel Richards asked.

“No, sir,” he answered without any hesitation.

“Why didn’t you?” Commander Mendoza pressed.

“Our goal was to keep PM from finding the tomb so we never intended to go anywhere near the real location,” he advised.

Commander Mendoza stalked closer at that statement. “So you know the location of the tomb?”

There was no way he was going to reveal that information to this man. Something about him just rubbed Bill the wrong way. “I don’t. You’d have to speak to Dr. Adams for that information.”

“Does Dr. Adams know what’s in the tomb? What PM planned to use in their activities?” Colonel Richards pressed.

“She knows what’s in the tomb, but not what PM planned.”

The two military men continued with various questions, oftentimes asking the same things in different ways as if trying to elicit different answers. But Bill was too well trained to fall for that trick. He was still uneasy about revealing that much to the military men, who were relative strangers. He preferred to take things slowly and find out more about them and their plans before saying anything about the existence of the sun stone and its amazing powers.

After about another half an hour of questioning, the colonel and commander excused themselves, obviously dissatisfied with his answers, but seemingly aware that they would not get any additional information from him.

ADIC Williams stood with his hands clasped before him. He had been relatively silent during the interrogation, but after the two men departed, he relaxed a little. “What’s the hold up, Bill?” he asked when they were alone.

“What do we know about them? About why they’re here?”

“They’re here as part of a joint effort to combat the terrorists and drug cartels in the area.”

“But we determined that Los Leones were not involved in this, Pete,” he said, using his ADIC’s first name to make this a man-to-man chat rather than anything more official.

“I agree, but maybe there’s something they’re not telling us that would say otherwise. Just like there’s something you’re not saying,” Pete challenged.

Bill trusted him, but was still leery of saying too much at the moment. Instead, he changed the topic. “What about the PM members? How many did we capture?”

“None, except Lopez. The rest decided to make it a fight to the death,” Pete responded, obviously disturbed about that result.

It likewise brought Bill little comfort that they were dealing with such zealots. Although this PM cell had decided to commit suicide by cop, there were still other PM cells out there to fill the void and with Lopez alive, risk would continue to surround the stone.

“What will happen with Lopez?” he asked, his concern plainly evident to Pete.

“The military has assumed jurisdiction. He’s being treated as an enemy combatant.”

Which meant that Lopez could remain in confinement for a long time, but even with that, Bill still worried that Lopez remained a possible problem when it came to the relic. More reason for him to keep its existence from Pete and the military men.

“I guess there’s nothing else for us to do here, is there?” Bill prompted, hoping that Pete would understand that Bill would not be releasing any other information regarding the mission.

Pete shrugged, but then smiled broadly. “Nothing except getting you a chaplain once Doctor Vasquez’s father arrives later today. I’m assuming you’d like to wait for him to give her away.”

“You assumed right,” Bill replied with a broad grin, thankful for Pete’s support.

“I’ll go see what I can do.”

Her father arrived at the military base late that afternoon and the reunion between her parents was touching. Although they had been in touch via phone and email, it was clear they had not really seen each other in some time. They both stared as if it was for the first time.

“You’re so beautiful,” her father said and passed a hand over Miranda’s dark auburn hair, which barely had hints of gray.

Her seemingly no-nonsense mother tittered like a young schoolgirl and nearly preened before finding her voice. “You look wonderful also,” she replied and in response, her father straightened and seemed to grow in stature before her eyes.

Seeing their reactions, she decided it was best to give them some time alone and excused herself, eager to go see Bill. He had been moved to a different wing now that his condition had improved so markedly during the course of the day.

At the door to their makeshift quarters, Deanna asked the private on duty for an escort and within a few minutes, another young soldier was there to take her to Bill.

He was now in a private room and as she walked in, the smile he sent her made her heart clench with relief. He truly was going to be okay.

She walked to his side and he patted the bed beside him. She sat there and leaned forward, kissed him with every ounce of the emotion she was feeling. He responded in kind, cradling the back of her head in his big hand and returning the kiss until they were both shaking with need.

Reluctantly she pulled away. “I don’t think you’re up for more right now,
mi amor
.”

“Not yet, but soon,” he teased and rubbed the back of his hand along her cheek.

She grasped that hand and brought it close to her heart. “
Papi
arrived a little while ago. He and Mom are having their own kind of reunion.”

“Are you okay with that?” he asked, dipping his head to meet her downturned gaze.

“I think I am. It’s all kind of…weird and confusing,” she confessed.

“Why?”

She hunched her shoulders and finally met his gaze full-on. “I guess because I didn’t expect to like her.”

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked and she knew that he would understand when she answered.

“Only if she disappoints me again.”

Bill was obviously considering his response when a knock came at the door. Glancing at her to make sure she was okay with the interruption, he called out, “Come in.”

ADIC Williams stuck his head into the room. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

As he walked in, Deanna sensed a difference in the man from his earlier stiffness. That he and Bill had come to terms somehow was obvious as they shared an enthusiastic handshake and Williams dipped his head in greeting.

“Good to see you again, Deanna. I’ve brought something for the two of you.” He reached into his pants pocket and extracted a small velvet bag which he handed over to Bill.

“I thought you might need those,” he said as Bill opened the bag and spilled out two gold wedding bands.

“You may need to resize them,” Williams added, but Bill clapped him on the back in thanks.

“That was very thoughtful of you,” she said, truly overwhelmed by his actions.

“You can’t fight Fate, can you?” Williams said and glanced between the two of them, making Deanna wonder what, if anything, Bill had revealed to him. But she guarded her tongue so she wouldn’t inadvertently give anything away.

“We appreciate it, Pete. Now that Deanna’s father is here—”

“I took the initiative to get you a wedding license and spoke to the Roman Catholic priest in town. Richards and Mendoza have agreed to let him preside over the ceremony if you’d like.”

She exchanged a glance with Bill and with a slow sexy smile that caused her heart to skip a beat, he said, “We’d like that.”

It wasn’t how she had envisioned her wedding, mostly because she had never imagined herself getting married. Her parents had left too sour a taste in her mouth about happily-ever-after really existing. But as she stood beside Bill’s hospital bed, dressed in a plain white peasant-style blouse that one of the female soldiers had offered up as a gift when she’d heard about the event, nothing had ever seemed so right.

Her father had walked her to where Bill sat in bed while her mother stood off to one side holding the rings and watching the joyous event. Behind Miranda stood Bill’s boss in addition to an assortment of nurses, doctors and military, including the soldier who had so graciously donated the blouse.

It couldn’t have been more beautiful a wedding, Deanna thought as her mother handed her the ring to slip on Bill’s finger.

Bill’s hand shook when Deanna eased on the ring, repeating words he had never expected to hear. “I, Deanna, take thee, Bill, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”

His heart nearly hurt, it was so full to bursting with love as he accepted the matching ring from Miranda and took hold of Deanna’s hand. He offered up his own vows and for the first time in his life he believed forever was possible. He imagined the two of them growing old together. Pictured her with child, acknowledging that with love all things were possible.

A rather untraditional cheer rose up as the priest finished the ceremony and they shared a kiss to seal their vows. It yanked a smile to his face and he felt the shape of her grin against his lips. “I love you,” he murmured.

“I love you too,” she echoed.

After she exchanged hugs with her parents and well wishes from those present, another surprise arrived in the form of a candlelit dinner for two from the base cantina. Carefully he shifted over on the bed to allow Deanna to sit beside him. They fed each other bites of the tender steak, fries and salad in between kisses and tender caresses. For dessert there were two vanilla cupcakes with multicolored sprinkles.

“I have a confession to make,” she said as she fed him a piece of frosting-laden cupcake.

He held her hand steady as she brought the piece near, took the bite and then licked a bit of frosting from her fingertip. As her gaze widened, he sucked her finger into his mouth and then worked his way to her palm, where he placed a kiss.

“So not fair,” she replied on a shaky breath before bending to kiss him, loving him with a tender kiss that left no doubt about her desire.

“So not right that we’re spending our wedding night in a hospital bed,” he whispered against her lips, but kept on kissing her, loath to break contact until her earlier words came back to him.

“What was that confession?” he asked as he broke off a piece of his cupcake and fed it to her.

After she swallowed, she leaned her head on his shoulder and placed her hand over his heart. “I never imagined this…being married. Being part of a family.”

He rubbed her hand, his actions meant to soothe. “Having second thoughts?”

“Not at all. You’ll be there for me and I promise, I’ll be there for you,” she said, confirming what he already knew deep in his heart.

They finished the cupcakes in a few more bites and then Deanna pushed away the rolling hospital table. Bill reclined the bed and Deanna lay on her side and carefully leaned into him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, providing her a place to pillow her head.

For long moments they savored the peace of being together. But soon the question arose which they had both been avoiding for some time.

“What do you want to do with the stone?” Deanna asked, her voice muted and filled with worry.

“I wish I could say I trust Richards and Mendoza—”

“But you don’t and neither do I,” she said, half glancing at him from her spot on his shoulder.

“Then let’s keep it our secret for now.” He wasn’t going anywhere for at least a week or more. That would give him time to better assess the two military men and also discuss it with Pete Williams. He had no hesitation about Pete’s judgment. Maybe with Williams’s input, Deanna, Miranda and he could reach the right decision about what to do with the relic.

“I think that makes the most sense. Maybe when things are a little calmer, the decision won’t be so difficult,” she replied and inched upward, kissed the edge of his jaw.

Bending his head, he captured hers with one big hand and smiled. “You don’t think I’ll be content with just that miserly kiss, do you?”

Grinning, she shifted again until she was eye to eye with him on the bed. “I guess you expect a little more from your new wife.”

“A lot more,” he said with a boyish grin and proceeded to show her just how much was possible even though he was wounded.

Gonzalo ran his fingers along the edges of the relic, admiring the handiwork that had etched the glyphs into the gold, silver and obsidian of the sun stone. “Did you know that gold was so plentiful with the Aztecs that it wasn’t considered precious, but an obsidian as pure as this—black as a moonless night—was considered sacred?”

Miranda smiled indulgently at her husband and his genuine delight over the relic. “I know, Gonzalo,” she said lovingly and sat beside him on the bed in the room he had been offered.

He laughed at himself and shook his head. “Of course, you do. You’re an expert in this area.”

“But not expert enough to know about the existence of this stone and what it can do,” she chastised, aware that her discovery could have serious implications for so many if it fell into the wrong hands.

Gonzalo glanced around the room, belatedly showing concern about the fact that they might be under surveillance, but Miranda reassured him. “I checked quite carefully before I brought out the stone. It’s safe to talk here.”

Despite her words, Gonzalo leaned close to her and whispered, “You say you can travel through time with it?”

Miranda shrugged. “More like you can travel
back
in time, but it requires a blood sacrifice.”

Gonzalo peered at the relic again and held it up to the light, examining its construction once more. With a shake of his head, he said, “I still don’t understand how that’s possible.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but Deanna claims to have done it. At least three times.”

Her husband shook his head in disbelief, but then said, “Deanna is not one for telling tales, so if she says that it’s so…”

“She told me that she could only move back a short amount of time,” Miranda offered, sharing part of a conversation the two women had had earlier that day, during the headlong rush to prepare for the wedding.

A wedding. Her daughter was married and that meant that one day, she might be a grandmother.

“Your eyes are so sad. What are you thinking about?” Gonzalo asked and cradled her cheek.

“Deanna is married. To a good man from what I can see.”

“I’ve spent some time with them together. I think he will be good for her. Stable,” her husband said and his words were like a knife through her heart.

“Stable. Not like me.”

Gonzalo set the stone aside and took her into his arms, feeling the years fall away as Miranda returned the embrace. “Things can be different now.”

Miranda shook her head. “How can they? As long as the stone isn’t in a safe place, how can we even try to live a normal life?”

“Then let’s make sure it is in a safe place,” he replied.

Miranda shifted away from him, eyeing him with puzzlement. “I don’t understand.”

“You and I together. We can make sure that we never have to worry about the stone falling into the wrong hands.” As if to prove his point, he reached for the relic, grabbed it and brought it between them. Laid her hands on it as it rested in his lap and then placed his hands on hers.

“Together, my love,” he urged.

With the hint of an accepting smile emerging on her face, Miranda repeated, “Together, my love.”