May 7, 2440 07:28 AM CST
“Is this an everyday thing for you?” T’mari asked as they pulled onto the blacktop.
“When I am not doing eight hundred and one other things that take precedence. Yesterday would have been my normal day for visitation but I was a little busy.”
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t be. The thing you will quickly learn we have built a lot of redundancy into the system. I also learned a lot about the V’ren driving people around to where they needed to be. I like your people,” he said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
This was going to be awkward matt knew pulling into to see Ambulance 01-02 already onsite. Thas was Oxana’s rig. They had never officially been a couple, but everyone thought they would marry by the end of summer and hopefully start pumping out babies. He looked over at T’mari and knew two things he must have a thing for redheads, though she was copper blond to Oxana’s carrot top and he better get Angelina on top of T’mari’s public image. His people would never blame him over the change of partners, but his mother had been the victim of a hostile public.
“Morning,” he said holding out the coffee thermos as a peace offering. “Was there a problem?”
“No, just a nervous pregnant girl. Jesse is just fine. I give her a few weeks still. We did good work on you T’mari. Those jeans look great.”
“They free great too. Thank you, again. Would being examined by a V’ren doctor make her feel any better?”
“You know she had a lot of questions about the V’ren. I think she would just like some company.”
“I will ask,” T’mari said looking to Matt.
“You don’t need my permission,” he said clocking the young man with a small girl riding on his shoulders, dragging a garden hose and sprinkler behind him.
“Alex,” he said extending a hand to Larry’s son. “Is he as good as a horse, Amanda?” he asked looking up at the girl.
“Better,” the almost five year old said. “ He is going to let me play in the sprinkler and you don’t have to shovel his…”
“Enough,” Christine said coming out of the other half of the duplex.
“How is everyone holding up, Chris?” Matt finally asked.
“About the same, except,” she said, stopping herself since she was also confronting the alien in the room which was causing the community a lot of anxiety.
“Except they are worried about my people,” T’mari offered. “It would be worrisome if you weren’t concerned about the future or even just tomorrow.”
“That about sums things up. Nick was up all night wondering what sort of job he would be left with after a hundred thousand newcomers.”
“It is a fair worry, but remember who I am. I am not about to stop taking care of my people even if there are a hundred thousand more of you now. How are Tessa and Bird?” He said pointing his chin towards the door she just came through.
“Finally able to sleep. I have seen some colicky babies and nervous new moms, but Jesus Christ.”
“Exactly what would Angelina or Lola Rhea say about you?”
“Thank god, I wasn’t as bad as that pair. What good are you today, and what happened between you and,” she said pointing her own chin at the redheaded paramedic.”
“Nothing happened and I think that is the point, she moved on from a relationship most people assumed was happening but wasn’t.”
“Bullshit, Matt. It was real enough to her and the public could see it. Just remember I am one of those in danger and so is Amanda if you don’t do something soon. Lady, sorry I don’t know your name, but you need to know what you are walking into if you are going to be seen with him. Make him tell you about it. I will go get our supplies.”
Matt slowly let out the breath he was holding. He and Pam were gonna have a chat as there was no way she accidentally double booked this route when he called in for it. Secondly, he was going to strike Alex out tonight or make the little shit dodge wild pitches. Oxana was wearing a shirt two sizes too big and he was walking around like he just fucked the boss’s wife and got away with it. “I will tell you when we are back on the road.”
He banged out a text:
‘Message received. Don’t do it again. Split the route. I will run it in reverse from current. Confirm.’
‘Sorry. She made me do it. Route Confirmed. P.’
He wished there was an appropriate irritated-eyeroll emoji for what he was feeling and banged off another.
‘We will talk later.’
‘Of course we will. Go talk to T now. A.’
“Let’s go,” Matt said, wondering if T’mari knew just how good she smelled to him.
Matt let the fresh tar smell of the back road spill over him as he approached highway speeds on what should have been limited to backroad touring speeds. Head cleared, he smiled. “Sorry.”
T’mari waited patiently for whatever it was he had to say and whatever problem her presence had just caused him.
“None of this is your fault. I need an heir, preferably several of them to avoid a dynastic blood bath should I die. I owe my people that. I have modeled it several ways and if I die without one half of the fourteen hundred potential claimants would be murdered within a week, of those that survive half would be the ones who turned kinslayer and the other half would have been really good at hiding.
Everyone thought Oxana and I would be a good couple, and I could have lived with that. She is smart, funny, easy to get along with, all things I am sure you experienced yesterday. It has been hard for me to move forward after my wife’s death. I think I waited too long with Oxana. She got tired of me waiting. I don’t know, but she has apparently moved on. I am ok with that.
My job now is to make sur no one blames her and somehow try again with someone else. If people see you and I together they are going to think you are my next potential wife, just like they thought of Oxana. I know I am rambling but hear me out. I will drive you back to the house if you want and not blame you one bit for not wanting to get caught up in my personal traumas much less dynastic politics.”
“This is where I need to be. Tell me more about what I need to know. I can only stay today, tomorrow and then need to be headed back to the fleet the next afternoon so I can brief W’ren and the others in person before they get here. I want to help you make this work and just remember I am no stranger to dynastic politics. I am here because W’ren has too much honor to be comfortable for High Lord Th’ron and his allies.”
He had been right on that at least, he thought.
“No matter what others think, Oxana and I weren’t having sex. Everyone is going to assume you and I are. If I say we aren’t public then they will have convinced themselves we are hiding it, because that is the way small towns are. You have now been permanently linked to me and a reputation I developed when I was younger than MJ more than thirty years ago. I was a lot closer to Elliot’s age in fact when people saw me start to burn through girlfriends and destroy myself,” he explained without the details.
“So you need children,” she said with a sigh. She had been signaling and he hadn’t responded. That made her ineligible to be the mother of his kids. A woman couldn’t conceive with a man she was biologically incompatible with. She decided to quit trying and using the biofeedback techniques she had been taught more than a decade ago she eased back on her pheromone production.
“It isn’t just that, I want children. I want to be a father,” he sighed thinking about his father who had never wanted a wife nor kids, but did so out of duty. The big difference between the two of them though is his father was gay.
“You sound incredibly V’ren when you speak like that. Tell me about these places we are visiting,” she asked as they pulled through the gate of a duplicate community to the one they just left.
“This was a program designed by Amy and Angelina to better house the people we rescue and for young couple we want to keep away from interfering family members. We have always done that, but it was a lot more chaotic before. Chris was one of those we helped. Not all of my relatives make good choices. She and her husband were barely thirteen when she got pregnant and everyone wanted to interfere and break them apart as much as they wanted to blame the family’s kid so I had to step in. That is not what anyone wants me to do. She and Nick are some of our many success stories and Amanda is too cute by far. More importantly she is growing up in a stable loving home and community.”
“You said something about rescues?”
“Memphis is a place I am forced to do business with if I want to sell crops, but it is not the sort of place I think should be allowed to exist. They remain economically viable because they control the river traffic, the port and allow the sorts of things that would make you want to leave Earth to go on in back rooms behind closed doors. I don’t have the political backing I need to put an end to it right now, but their days are numbered once I do. As for the rescues, they are the runaways and throw aways, often young pregnant girls or women and kids that can’t support themselves. Those are the bulk of our rescues, but we get them from other places. I take them in no questions asked and try to help them find stability and then reintegrate them into the community.”
“It is why you were so quick to take us in.”
“You needed my help and a place to feel safe. I have been through battles and lost people, but I would rather not talk about that today. You are not the only one with survivor’s guilt.”
“How do you deal with it?” she asked staring out the window, the memory of being pinned to the deck, hearing her crew scream.
“I don’t, at least not very well,” he whispered, pulling over. “But I can help you carry yours.”
