Finding Jess (First Wave) (11 page)

“Some of them have been through
some of the things you have. They can relate to you in a way that they can’t
with anyone else. Who are you? Get away from them!” Amun and Jess were startled
when Maggie jumped up and ran for the children.

Afraid someone was going to hurt
them; they took off after her and stopped short on the other side of a large
purple tube, bursting into laughter. There on the ground was Tarvok red with
embarrassment, covered in giggling children.

Amun and Jess weren’t the least
surprised to see him since Ivint had ordered him to guard Jess until the
shooter was found. However, seeing the big, tough warrior covered in giggling
children was not something either of them had expected.

“I take it; you know him?” Maggie
asked appearing breathless.

“Yes, he is with me. This is my
friend Tarvok. Tarvok this is Dr. Maggie Jensen.” Jess said, the way she’d
learned from Jax.

“I heard her introduce herself. I’m
sure I can handle keeping the children busy while you finish your conversation,
there are some things children should not hear.” Tarvok said pointedly to
Maggie, as if to chastise her.

“Oooh!” Was all Maggie managed to
utter before she stormed off back to the picnic table.

“Wow, you know how to make an
impression Tarvok,” Amun teased.

“Yes, I don’t understand why the
little ones like me.” Tarvok said curiously, not even realizing Amun had been
referring to Dr. Maggie. Amun just laughed and led Jess back to the still
fuming Dr. Maggie.

“If you’re well enough, I’d like
for us to get started right away. I’m worried about some of the more
life-threatening injuries a few of them have. In fact, Lily is at the top of
the list of children who need to be seen.” Maggie tried to put the infuriating
Tarvok out of her mind and concentrate on the children.

“What’s wrong with Lily?” Amun and
Jess asked at the same time causing Jess to blush.

“At four years old, Lily is our
youngest and most injured child. She’s been with us for six months now; Banatar
heard from a source that she had been kept with a foster family that was being
paid by the Relians. She was barely alive when he took her from them and
brought her here.” They waited while Dr. Maggie paused to collect herself and
blink away the tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“They had kept her in a cage, and
used a cattle prod on her; the repeated shocks damaged her heart. Then there're
the malnutrition and dehydration she suffered and the regular beatings. The
night before Banatar got her; she was severely dehydrated and they used a taser
on her.”

“I don’t understand how it
happened, but where the taser had gone into her arm, it caught her arms on
fire. The fire had spread to her legs before they threw some water on her to
put it out. And they left her in that cage like that; until Banatar got to her
the next night. She’d lain like that all…” Jess caught Maggie in a hug as the
woman burst into tears. She didn’t need to finish the sentence for Amun and
Jess to know that those animals had left that baby in indescribable pain and
near death for hours.

Amun looked back to where Lily was
giggling with the other children and wanted nothing more than to kill the
monsters who had harmed that wonderful little girl. While the women tried to
pull themselves together, Amun took a harder look at the children.

The first thing he noticed was the
various limps and scars that were visible where clothing couldn’t hide them.
Worse than that he thought; were the haunted looks behind the smiles and
restrained giggles. These kids had been through more than anyone could
understand; except for Jess and Tarvok.

“Anyway, she needs her heart
repaired. And the scars… then there’s Justin, our only little boy…” Maggie
began before Amun cut her off.

“Show me your medical area now. I
may need a bigger space for my equipment. Tarvok, stay with the children while
we get a MedLab set up to start treatment.” Amun didn’t wait for the woman to
answer; he just led her out of the door with Jess following.

“Ivint, we have nine, I repeat nine
small children who need serious medical treatment now; one of which has a heart
problem and may not be stable. I need several portable MedLab’s set up here at
their medical area immediately; equipment that can be left here. I’ll see to the
training of a staff personally with your permission sir.”

Amun spoke determinedly into his
comm, his long strides urging the doctor to walk faster. He needed to get
started now. He couldn’t stand the thought of those children going another
minute with those scars reminding them of the horror they’ve been through, o
worse take a chance of one of them dying. This was the one thing he could do to
help.

“We’ve got a MedLab transport
porting in an hour with everything you need. You let me know immediately if you
need anything else for them. Understood?” You couldn’t mistake the authority in
Ivint’s tone.

“Yes, sir.”

Amun stopped and looked around the
large room that the doctor had led them into; other than a bunch of
unrecognizable machines, six beds and a dozen counters, it was bare. It was
perfect.

“We need to clear everything out of
this room before our gear arrives.” Amun said, thinking aloud.

Maggie and Jess exchanged a look
and started rolling the beds and equipment out of the room and into an empty
room down the hall. By the time they stopped working the entire room looked
like a MedLab aboard one of the ships, complete with a MedLab team courtesy of
Ivint.

“We’re ready to bring Lily in; we
can bring the others in one at a time after we’ve had a chance to evaluate her
and get her treatment started.” Amun said to the room in general. He wanted
everyone to know it was going to work the same as any trauma situation.

“They won’t come in alone; they're
too scared. They all come in together when they get treated, they don’t like to
be separated. And we don’t want to traumatize them any further.” Maggie
explained, hoping that they wouldn’t try to force the issue.

“Then bring them all in at once
with Tarvok. Jess I want you to stay too. Lily might be more comfortable with
you here. And if the others see she’s fine, then they might not be so afraid.”
Amun knew that it was a good reason, but it wasn’t his reason. He just wanted
her to be with him.

“Ok, I’ll stay. I can do this.”
Jess pulled her breath in and out a couple of times to try to calm her nerves.
She didn’t want to be in here for this. The thought of seeing those scars on
their tiny little bodies sent a rage through her like she’d never felt before.

Jess smiled when she saw Lily was
the first in the door. The little imp ran to Jess and took a leap into her
arms.

“You’re a brave little thing aren’t
you? How about Amun heals, you first and you show all the others that this is
easy?” Jess whispered confidentially into Lily’s ear, pulling back to smile at
the little girl and move a silky strand of hair out of her eyes.

Lily looked really nervous, her
eyes darting around the room at all the Valendran men.

“I’ll be here the whole time baby,
and I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. Neither will Amun, Maggie and Tarvok.
We’d beat up anyone who tried.” Jess said teasingly, trying to make her smile.

“Add me to that list Jess; no one
is getting past me.” One of Adaria’s MedLab tech’s said.

“Me too.” Was the chorus around the
room as each of them vowed to protect the children. The children giggled while
Maggie wiped the tears from her eyes.

“I’ll do it if you stay with me.”
Lily whispered loudly to Jess.

“I’m not moving.” Jess sat Lily in
the first bed and stood to the side of the bed and held the little girl's hand while
Amun ran the necessary scans with two other techs. Maggie watched him intently
while mimicking his actions on her own scanner that he had given her to learn
with. Once the scans were complete, Amun showed the results to Maggie.

“I had no idea it was that bad.”
She muttered before Amun’s glare silenced her from making another outburst.

“Lily, I know Dr. Maggie’s told you
that you had a heart problem right?” At Lily’s frightened nod, he continued.

“Your heart is having a really hard
time keeping up with you right now, and we need to fix it very soon. To do
that, I need to be able to put you to sleep for just a little while. Can you
let me do that?” Amun asked her softly. He definitely didn’t want to frighten
her further, but she was going to have this done with her permission or not.

“I promise I won’t leave you for a
second. Everyone else will be in here, and they’ll tell you that I never left,
when you wake up. I promise he won’t hurt you honey. He healed me, and I was in
pretty bad shape too. He even had to make me a new lung!” Jess hated to see the
fear in Lily’s eyes, but she knew that she had to convince her to let Amun heal
her.

“Ewww a lung? You don’t have to
replace my heart do you?” Lily asked with her face scrunched up with disgust.

“No, we don’t have to replace your
heart. But we do have to fix it really quick, or we might have to replace it.”
Amun tried to be as honest as he could without scaring her more.

“Ok then, if we have to.” Lily
flopped back on the bed and spread her arms out to her sides and closed her
eyes. When everyone just stared at her for a moment, she opened up one eye and
looked up at them.

“Let’s get this over with already.”
Lily told them with a dramatic sigh.

“As you wish.” Amun laughed as he
sent the codes for the medicine to go through the mediband on her wrist, and
she was asleep in seconds. The other children watched with fascination as Amun
set to work showing Dr. Maggie how to repair Lily’s heart. At Amun’s nod, the
techs began the scans on the other children.

Maggie was amazed as she watched
some of the scars on Lily’s body heal almost before her eyes; in reality, it
had been hours since Amun had started working on her. The new scans that she
and Amun had just run showed the Nano technology had already repaired sixty-five
percent of the damage to her heart. She would need daily treatments for at
least a week before she would be healed completely, but there was no longer a
worry of her heart giving out on her.

“I need to see to the other
children, are you alright staying here with her?” Amun asked Jess tenderly,
lightly touching her shoulder.

“I’m not leaving her side; I
promised her.” Jess said rubbing Lily’s hand gently, as if hoping the child
would know she was still with her.

“You’re an amazing woman, Jess.”
Amun couldn’t help it; he leaned down and kissed the top of her head then moved
on to the next child.

Jess looked up in surprise at the
feel of his warm lips on her forehead, the heat seeming to spread throughout
her body. Just as she started to enjoy it, he walked away. She wasn’t sure if
she should be grateful or angry that he had.

She watched Amun as he tended to
each of the children, his caring nature putting each child at ease as he
explained their treatment to them. Several other children needed daily treatments,
mostly for the more serious scars and broken bones.

For one little girl, it was for the
multiple breaks in her leg that had never healed correctly due to lack of
treatment. Jess knew exactly how she felt, so when Amun brought her over to
Jess so Jess could show the girl her own legs, she willingly did so.

It was heartbreaking to see what
they had been through, but incredible to see the true smiles and excitement as
they watched their scars and injuries disappear.

Chapter
Nine

“Shhh, don’t wake them up!” The
loudly spoken words woke Jess up immediately. She leaned herself up from where
she’d been laying and looked at the nine smiling faces surrounding her.

“Aww man, you woke them up!” That
voice woke up Amun next; which was when she realized she’d been sleeping on
Amun’s chest? She jerked her hands back from his stomach quickly and stood up.
Amun caught her before she stumbled into Lily’s bed.

“You stayed like you said.” Jess
and Amun both turned to the sound of Lily’s voice from the bed next to them.
Her adorable face was almost glowing with excitement and health; her eyes
shining up at them.

“I knew she would! Jess always
helped, no matter what. Doncha remember?” One of the other little girls piped
in.

It was a long night, with not much
sleep for any of them. It had taken most of the night until Amun was confident
that the worst injuries were on their way to being healed and the minor ones
already gone.

And true to her word, Jess had
never once left Lily’s side. Amun smiled as he brushed back a stray lock of
hair from her eyes. She’d been wonderful last night. She’d told stories to the
other children as, he and the techs worked on the other two who had to be put
to sleep for the healing to be started. And she’d smiled and cheered with the
children over every single scar that disappeared off of their bodies.

One little girl with a horribly
deep scar that ran from her nose to her ear, had thrown herself into Amun’s
arms and cried like a baby when she saw the scar was almost completely gone and
her face no longer contorted from the mass of tissue. Now her beautiful smile
lit up the room, the scar nothing more than a faint thin line, that would be
entirely gone by tomorrow.

Dr. Maggie had to leave the room
several times to try to control her emotions and the tears that flowed freely
at seeing the happiness on the children’s faces. Even the tough Valendran males
were caught wiping moisture from their eyes.

Looking around the room, Amun could
see that all of them were exhausted from the physical and emotional toll it had
taken to heal them all. A few of the techs were still sleeping next to the beds
of the children they’d treated.

“Of course I stayed; I keep my
promise's honey. How do you feel?” Jess asked holding tightly to Lily’s hand.

“I feel wonderful! Thank you Jess!
Thank you Amun!” No one was more surprised than Amun and Jess when Lily
launched herself from the bed and into Amun’s arms.

Amun closed his eyes and held onto
her tiny little body tightly, his beast and protective instincts warring with
his emotions. His beast screaming that the child belonged to him… and Jess.

“Oh my! You all look so wonderful!”
Everyone turned at Dr. Maggie’s voice.

Lily jumped out of Amun’s arms and
ran with the other children to Maggie, so they could show her all the things
that had healed since she’d gone to bed a few hours ago. Her affection for the
children was evident in the way she hugged and cheered with each one of them.

“Oh, what do you have there honey?”
Maggie asked curiously.

“While most everyone was asleep; we
made a few things to say thank you for helping us.” Justin said proudly. It had
been obvious to the adults early on that he, and Lily were the official
speakers for the group; some; too shy to speak unless they had to.

The techs that had been awake
shrugged in response to Amun’s questioning look. Looking at his comm, he
realized he and Jess had only been asleep for three hours. That meant some of
the children hadn’t slept at all.

When the adults all looked confused
and didn’t say anything the children’s faces seemed to fall, thinking they
didn’t want what they had made. Feeling terrible that her exhaustion left her
slower than normal, Jess tried to make it up to the children.

“That’s was wonderful of each of
you! How did you manage to do something like that so quickly?” She managed to
put enough excitement in her voice to perk the children right back up again.

They had all began chattering at
once; the best that Jess could figure was that each of them had used their own
unique gifts to create each item, specifically for each person. Jess didn’t
fully understand until Lily handed her a small, cool object.

Adults and children watched
expectantly while she turned it over in her hand. It was half the size of her
palm and not very heavy at all; the details etched so vividly she could swear
it was going to talk to her. They even somehow knew to carve the collar around
Gibly’s neck, the black eyes carved in the black stone twinkling at her. It was
the most beautiful carving she’d ever seen; and stared at the children in
amazement that they could create something such as this.

“Do you like it? I think it’s a
panther, Jennifer said it was the animal that spoke to her when she carved it.”
Justin said shyly.

“I created the stone!” Another
chimed in.

Jess just looked around the room in
stunned silence with the rest of the adults, while the children told them what
part of their gifts, they helped create. The only one who didn’t seem the least
surprised was Maggie.

“It’s my friend Gibly. He’s a
Sibiox from Valendra, and you’re right; he looks just like a blank panther. And
this collar here is something I made for him with my gift. This is the most
beautiful thing I’ve ever been given. Thank you so much, all of you.” There was
no way she could stop the tears as she clutched her Gibly stone to her.

Amun was going to put his arm
around Jess when Lily handed him something as well. Opening his hand there lay
a miniature statue of Jess. It had to be her; the blue gemstones matched her
eyes and the golden streaks in her hair almost perfectly. The curve of her
mouth and cheekbones brushed softly into the stone. The colors of the pants and
shirt seemed to change though.

“Lily added her gift differently to
yours, so you can see Jess’s colors now. See the light blue is showing that
she’s very happy right now. I figure if it turns red, you’ll know to hide if
you know what I mean.” Justin explained making Tarvok roar with laughter while
some of the other techs chuckled.

“We chose the wolf for you Tarvok.
Because just like the wolf that always protects his pack, we know you’ll have
our back.” Justin said quietly as he handed the little gray wolf to him.

Tarvok looked gut punched and tried
to recover quickly so they wouldn’t think that he didn’t appreciate it. The
detail in the animal was just as incredible as the other ones they’d given to
Amun and Jess.

Tarvok squatted down and pulled the
little boy into his arms, hugging him tightly. “Thank you” was almost inaudible
to anyone but the little boy who was meant to hear it. Tarvok stood back up
awkwardly and cleared his throat, and repeated it loudly enough for the other
children to hear as well.

Then the children surprised the
entire med team with handmade items as well. Jess didn’t think she would ever
see a room of strong, tough men reduced to fighting tears again and enjoyed the
sight of the children charming them.

Lily ran back to Amun and Jess and
held her little arms up, and without a thought, Jess picked her up.

“You are an amazing little girl, do
you know that?” Jess asked her teasingly.

“As amazing as you?” Lily asked
innocently.

“Honey you are more amazing than I
will ever be.” Jess said honestly and gave her a quick hug.

“We made one for Mr. Ivint too for
bringing all this stuff so you could heal us.” Lily said to Amun.

“I will let him know immediately.
I’m sure he’ll want to come as soon as he can.” Amun at least hoped he would.
With the shooter still at large and trying to catch up with Banatar on what is
going on with the planet and the Relians; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get
away any time soon. Even so, he’d try.

Walking out of earshot, he opened
the comm and spoke quietly to Ivint, bringing him up to speed on the health of
the children and the gifts they had made. Ivint was silent for a moment before
cryptically saying that he would like to hear more, then the comm had cut out.

He walked back to the center of the
room and whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention.

“Good morning everyone. Thank you
to the children for your beautiful gifts, they will be treasured always.” He
clutched his figurine of Jess tightly as a chorus of agreement erupted from the
others.

“But… this morning we need to
concentrate on running some scans and reprogramming more medicine for your
injuries. I know that a lot of them are gone or healing; but we need to make
them go away for good. So we need everyone back to your beds, so we can get
started, the sooner we finish the faster you can all go play.” Jess didn’t
think anyone was surprised when the children raced to their separate beds and laid
down quietly.

“I hear that we have some children
who are feeling a lot better this morning, and I had to come and see for
myself.” Some of the children gasped when Ivint strode into the room and spoke;
his air of authority and commanding presence obviously affecting more than just
the adults.

Jess watched with pride as Lily
slid off of her bed and walked with halting steps and a bowed head towards
Ivint. She stopped a few feet in front of him, and with her head still bowed,
slowly raised her hand up to him; the glint from the lights on the object
twinkled across the breastplate he was wearing. He had taken it off dozens of
times since a latch had appeared on it after he’d been shot; however, he said
he preferred to wear it.

Ivint stared down at the very nervous
but very brave little girl who’d walked up to him while the others huddled in
their beds. He assumed the glittering gold rock in her hand was the present
that Amun had told him they had crafted for him.

Ivint dropped to his knees, so he
wouldn’t be as intimidating to her and waited to see if she’d look up at him.
He almost chuckled aloud when he saw her pretty blue eyes peeking up at him
through her tangled hair. 

“You must be Lily. I’ve heard a lot
about you from Amun; all of you. Is that the gift you made for me? Can I see
it?” Ivint urged her to come a little closer and hoped that she would. He
didn’t want any of these children to ever be afraid of him.

Lily looked back at Jess and Amun
as if to ask if it was ok, and at their nods took a deep breath and walked
until she was within touching distance of Ivint. In a move that surprised them
all, she took his large hand in hers and placed his gift in his palm.

“Thank you so much for helping us.
Now we know why the spirits chose your gift.” The last she said on a giggle and
raced back to Jess and Amun.

Everyone in the room moved closer
to Ivint, curious as to what image or totem the children had made for him.

Ivint stared down at his palm in
shock. There was no way they could have done this. Someone had to have
described it to them; or shown them an image of him. Ivint looked around
questioningly, as if expecting someone to explain it to him.

“How did they know?” Jess whispered
quietly. Everyone else in the room was shaking their heads in denial at telling
the children about it.

Clearing his throat loudly, Ivint
stood back up to his full height and contemplated his gift for a moment before
carefully considering his next words.

“It is a truly beautiful gift, and
I am honored that you even considered making something for me. The detail is
some of the finest I’ve ever seen. How did you know to make such a perfect
gift?” Ivint put just enough praise and curiosity in his tone to have the
children scrambling out of their beds to stand in front of him all chattering
at once about how they came up with the idea for his gift.

The only thing they all understood
was that the spirits had told one of them what to create, another called the
stones. Lily allowed the colors to choose which person they wanted to be with;
another called the gems used to decorate the stones. And so on until every
child had a hand in creating each gift uniquely for each person.

“And you’ve never seen this
before?” Ivint asked in amazement as he pointed to his breastplate. He looked
at the others in the room with surprise when all the children shook their
heads.

“I’m amazed at how talented each of
you are…” Ivint was at a loss for words as he stared back down at the miniature
replica of his breastplate that they had made for him. They even had the Sibiox
clearly etched into the golden stone with shining stones, glittering black
jewels for eyes.

The skill to craft something of
this quality took years to learn and perfect even on Valendra, yet if Amun was
correct, these children had made dozens of these in the span of a few hours. It
was difficult for him to wrap his mind around the talent these children
possessed at such a young age.

He would have thought that after
seeing some of the abilities of the other gifted females here that he wouldn’t be
surprised, but he was. Hell they were still trying to wrap their minds around
the fact that they were female warriors and not to be coddled and protected.