The Huntress (15 page)

Mea ran gentle fingers over the tearstains on her face. “Anybody would want you, sugar.”

“Would you?” Regan whispered.

Mea felt her heart squeeze in her chest. “If I didn’t have a job that put you in danger, I’d take you in a second.”

“I’d stay on the ship from now on.”

“I go to some very bad places. You wouldn’t necessarily be safe on the ship.”

“You did okay with Uncle Mike.”

“That was different.”

“How?”

“Well, that—that was…” Mea faltered, staring helplessly into Regan’s pleading eyes. There were more similarities than differences in the two situations, and Mea was having a hard time saying no. Truth was she didn’t
want
to say no.

At her silence, Regan turned with a whimper back over to her side. “You don’t want me either.”

Hating the pain in the girl’s thin voice, Mea curled around her protectively, holding her close. “Baby, I’d give anything to call you my daughter. But you deserve a nice, normal family in a nice, safe place. Not bouncing from one hole in the galaxy to another with someone like me. I don’t think I’d make a very good mother.”

“I don’t want nice and normal. I want you.” Regan wiggled back around, eyes red rimmed. “I think you’d make a great mom. I feel safe with you.”

“Well, I haven’t done very well with that so far, have I?”

Regan waved a hand airily. “Bragan doesn’t count.”

“He doesn’t?” Mea raised her eyebrows at this easy dismissal. “How do you figure?”

“He was a rogue hunter. How often are we gonna run into rogue hunters?”

“Hmm.” Mea had to admit that she liked the
we.
“What if your family does want you?”

Regan turned her face away. “I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t think I can convince the authorities to let me take you if you have family asking for you.”

“But if they don’t?”

Mea could feel her holding her breath. “Well, Child Security would want to stick you in a foster home.” Then she ended softly, “But I could ask.”

Regan’s face lit up like a sun. “You would?”

“Like I could say no to you.”

In a flash, the girl locked her arms around Mea’s neck in a strangling hug.

“Oh, dear,” she murmured with half-nervous chuckle. “I can see how this is going to go. You’ll have the run of the ship in half a day, wrap Warren and me around your little finger, grow up spoiled—”

“I'll grow up to be just like you.”

“Now I know we’re in trouble.”

Regan pulled back, and Mea thought her life would be good if she could just see the girl smile like that every day. With an incredulous little spurt of delight, she realized she would have that opportunity—if all went well. Reluctantly, she put some caution into the conversation. “We still have to hear what your aunt and uncle have to say about this. And the authorities may fight it because I have a dangerous job.”

Regan sobered a bit and nodded, but her smile didn’t completely disappear, and Mea gave in to a smile of her own.

“Uncle Mike’ll have a stroke.”

Regan giggled. “Would I call him Grandpa Mike?”

Mea snorted, laughter trembling along the edges of her words. “If you want him to tan your hide. On second thought, you should, just once. I’d love to see his face.”

“You and me both,” Ema snickered. “Little one, I’d love to welcome you to the family, but right now you have to get off my table. You’re disrupting the healing process.”

“Okay.” Regan slid off the table and stepped to the door, turning at the threshold to look back. “Hey, Mea, can I go tell Warren?”

“Sure. And tell him to tuck you in bed. I’m a little busy here. See you in the morning, squirt.”

“Goodnight—Mom!” She flashed Mea an impish smile before dancing out the door.

Mea felt a silly grin on her face but couldn’t make it go away. “God, I love that girl.”

“I can tell,” Ema murmured. “Hold still, please.”

“What the hell am I going to do if they tell us no?”

“I remember having almost the exact same conversation with Mike. Turned out all right then.”

“I didn’t have any family.”

“It doesn’t sound like she’s got much of a family either. What kind of aunt and uncle never sees their nieces?”

“The very far away kind.”

“Well, if there’s any justice in the universe, you two will be together. For all the hell you put Mike through, you deserve a little of your own.”

“Oh, thanks. You’re all heart.”

“I’ll take the thanks, but you can hold the sarcasm, young lady.”

“Yes, Ema,” she sighed indulgently.

They were quiet for a few moments. Then Ema spoke in a voice softer than Mea had heard in a while. “Do you want to talk about him?”

Mea sighed again, rubbing a hand over her burning eyes. “No. Thanks anyway.”

“I’ve just never seen you so worked up over a man before.”

“Not counting Job?”

“Oh, please! That mistake of yours was purely hormones—infatuation at best. You were just too stubborn to listen to me when I tried to tell you that.”

“I listened. I just didn’t believe.”

“Typical. You want my opinion on this new one?”

“Would it matter if I said no?”

Ema continued as if Mea hadn’t spoken. “I think he’s a match for you in obstinacy. It’s obvious that he wants to be here with you. He watches you like a hawk when you’re in the room, and when you aren’t, he acts like a caged tiger.”

“He has other reasons to act that way besides wanting to be with me—and I thought I said I didn’t want to talk about this.”

“Tough. You’re stuck on my table until you’re healed, and I’m not done opinionating.”

“You are such a pain in my ass.”

Ema ignored her. “The boy had a very obvious reason earlier. I can scan and heal at the same time you know, and that man wanted you with a vengeance. I thought you two were going to set my whole infirmary on fire.”

“Just because he wants me does not mean he cares for me.”

“Well, it’s true that I can’t scan for human emotion, but your hormonal levels and bio readings were almost identical in intensity—”

“Just shut up, Ema. Please!”

“If you want my advice—”

“Oh, god.”

“You should drag his butt back here and give him what he wants—what you both want—for a few days, then see whether or not he feels like running away.”

“I won’t force him. He has to come to me of his own free will,” Mea muttered through clenched teeth. Just because that advice sounded really damned good didn’t mean she should take it.

Warren walked in, forestalling any further comments from Ema, and Mea breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god you’re here. I was just about to say screw the healing and yank her crystal out of the wall.”

“Ema giving you fits again?” He came over and activated a seat in front of her.

“When isn’t she? Is Regan okay?”

“Tucked the munchkin into bed a few minutes ago. She told me the news.”

“Yes?” Mea watched him carefully. His approval meant a lot to her and she needed his objective view on the subject, but his expression wasn’t particularly encouraging.

“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t exactly lead a stable life, and it’s not the ideal living conditions for a child.”

Mea covered her eyes, feeling tears burn behind her eyelids. “I know. I know you’re right. She’s just a little girl—what does she know about what she wants or needs? For her sake, I should let her go.” Her voice dwindled to a pained whisper.

“Don’t be stupid,” Warren scoffed and she looked at him, surprised. “Right now you’d do a lot more damage to her by making her go to complete strangers than keeping her here with you. I would testify to that in front of a whole panel of Child Security officials if you want me to.”

Both angry and relieved, she punched his chest. “Then why the hell did you ask me if I was sure?”

“I needed to know that it was what you wanted. Mea, neither one of you has had an easy life. I think you both deserve a little happiness for a change, and if that means being together, I’m behind it one hundred percent.”

Ignoring Ema’s squawk of protest, she leaned forward and pulled Warren into a hug. “Thank you.”

He held her gently, careful of her wound. “You’re welcome. Of course, I did expect to see you pregnant first before you became a mother, but what the hell.”

She laughed and kissed his cheek as she let him go. “How much longer, Ema? I need to talk to Uncle Mike.”

“It’s going to be a couple of hours, so relax.”

“I don’t do that very well. Warren, could you get me a portable?”

With a nod, he left but was gone longer than Mea deemed necessary. She was shifting restlessly to Ema’s grumbling when he came back carrying a portable viewscreen. “What took you so long?”

“I wanted to wait until you were healed before showing you, but—”He sat down, propped the viewscreen on the table, and pressed a few keys before turning it around so she could see.

A slow smile curved her lips. “Well, well. Didn’t go far did he?”

She watched Stone’s soft white silhouette as he leaned casually on a building she knew was in visual range of the
Starfire.
I sure as hell am not going to get any sleep now,
she thought.
Not with him so close.
“He’s watching out for Regan.”

“That’s probably part of it, but I’ll bet a couple of my servos it’s not the only reason he’s out there.”

“Don’t get my hopes up. Speaking of which, don’t show this to Regan. I don’t want to see that look on her face ever again when he leaves.”

“This time he might not leave.”

“Yes, but he might.”

“But he might not.”

She sighed, arching a brow at him.

He held up a hand. “Okay, he might.”

After glancing one more time at Stone’s white shadow, she tapped the screen with quick fingers.

Uncle Mike’s rugged features appeared. “Still not on Belatan time, Hunter?”

“Did I wake you?”

“No, I’m your boss. I never sleep. What is it, Mea?”

“Have you heard from Regan’s family yet?”

“No. I don’t know what the holdup is, but I would’ve contacted you if they had.”

“Can you send an addendum to your communication to them? I want you to tell them that in the event that they can’t take her, there’s someone who will.”

“Oh, yeah? Who’d you find—” He froze, staring at her when she smiled. “Mea, no.”

“Oh yes.”

“You can’t! The life of a hunter is not for a little girl.”

“I turned out okay.”

“Damn it, Mea, you don’t know what you’re getting into.”

“Uncle Mike, are you trying to tell me that you regret taking me on?”

He shifted with obvious discomfort. “Of course not.”

“That you didn’t love or want me?”

“You know I did.” His eyes slid away from hers in embarrassment, but that didn’t stop him from speaking his mind. “I fought like a dog to have you in my life, girl. I loved you like you were my own.”

“Uncle Mike, you were the best thing that ever happened to me, until now. I would slay dragons for this little girl. I would do anything to make her happy and by some miracle, what would make her happy is to be with me. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”

He met her gaze steadily and smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Yeah, I sure do.”

She wanted to reach through the screen and kiss his dear face. “I’m going to fight for her, Uncle Mike. Tooth and nail, right down to the bone.”

“Then it sounds like I raised you right.” He sobered, becoming more business-like. “I’ll send the message to her family. If they want her, though, you don’t stand a chance. I hope you realize that.”

She nodded.

“You’ll need to petition Child Security for authorization to adopt. Don’t you dare wake them up and try to do it now, though. Pissing them off is not how you want to start. I’ve got records from when I adopted you around here somewhere. I’ll send them along—something in them might help. Oh, and you have my official approval to proceed, Hunter.”

“Thanks, Boss. I knew I could count on you.”

“Always.”

“How’s the investigation going?”

“What, on Bragan? That’s over. With great bureaucratic pomp and circumstance, they’ve decided that Hunter Nat Bragan went rogue and was stopped in an unfortunate but necessary way.” He shook his head ruefully. “You might even get a medal out of this whole mess.”

“For killing one of our own? Don’t you dare let them.”

“By the way, we’re holding a wake for him tomorrow night in the Academy courtyard. I think you should be there.”

She frowned. “You don’t think that would be inappropriate? I’m the one who killed him, after all.”

“I’m making it an order. Besides, you didn’t kill him by yourself.” His mouth twisted. “Where is your supposed partner?”

Mea looked away, catching Warren’s grimace over the top of the viewscreen. “He’s—around.”

“Around as in not on the
Starfire.”

It wasn’t a question, and Mea looked at her boss with narrowed eyes. “Keeping tabs, are you?”

“I said I would. What’s going on, Mea?”

“He’s still deciding.”

He made a rude noise. “He’s going to decide himself straight into trouble. Did he have anything to do with that slaver fiasco?”

“No, he did not. Absolutely nothing.”

“You tell that boy to watch his step.”

Mea rubbed a hand over her eyes, weary beyond belief and not just physically. “Look, I’ve got to go. I need to get some sleep. Will you send over those records?” When he made an affirmative noise, she said, “Goodnight then.” Mea clicked off the viewscreen before he could say anything else and lowered her head to the table. “Warren, would you make sure we get those records? I need to rest for a little while.”

“No problem.” He took the viewscreen off the table. “Why’d he call the slaver thing a fiasco?”

“Hmm? Oh, the woman refused to testify against them, claiming she was a willing participant. No one saw the start of the fight, so it’s my word against five of theirs that they threw the first blow. HQ had to let them go.”

“Damn.”

“You can say that again.”

“You need a pillow?”

“Not necessary,” Ema answered and activated a force field under Mea’s body, lifting her above the table. It felt like gentle hands cradling her with perfect support.