Winter's Scars: The Forsaken (Winter's Saga 5) (5 page)

The bottled water in the fridge was on the top shelf.  Margo sighed as she looked up at the water sparkling in the light as if taunting her. 

Danny watched Margo’s frustration at the bottled water too far out of her reach and huffed determinedly.  He walked to a kitchen barstool and grabbed the long legs with his two small hands.  He pushed with all his might so it scraped softly against the hardwood kitchen floor on its way to the fridge. 

“Danny, I don’t think that’s a good idea.  You’re not big enough to climb that and even if you were, it wouldn’t be safe.”  Truth be told, half Margo’s attention was on trying to hear what the men were saying in the next room.  She thought she overheard her name several times then Greg’s voice definitely said the words “fragile” and “damaged.” 

That was all Margo needed to hear.  Anger replaced heartbreak in the former Special Forces soldier.  She looked at the barstool beside her and gritted her teeth.  “Stand back Danny.  I’m going to get you that water.”

She grabbed the barstool’s seat and pulled herself up.  She’d been working on her physical therapy, so the muscles in her arms and shoulders were strong enough to get her there.  With her belly leaning heavily against the seat, she reached one hand up toward the water bottle and seeing how far from her goal she was, she began pulling on the shelf to gain more height.  Her eyes never left the bottle of water, even as it began to lightly slosh. 

Then it occurred to her that she could maybe jostle a bottle so it would fall.  That was the last thought she had before the barstool slipped out from under her unsteady frame and her fragile, damaged body hit the floor.  Three bottles of cold water smashed to the unforgiving ground around her, bursting open at the seams.

Danny’s simultaneous wail of fear and surprise reverberated off the stark white walls of the bachelor’s kitchen.

When Theo and Greg burst into the room at full sprint, they saw Margo face down on the floor, bottles of water still gushing at their popped seams.  Danny was crouched beside Margo’s ashen face.  His little hands were shaking her shoulders trying to wake her but that’s not what made Theo’s jaw drop.  He rushed to Margo’s side as the voice of the usually silent little boy screamed one word over and over again.  Danny was calling for her, begging in a plaintive, terrified voice,
“Mama!  Mama! Maaama!”

No one heard Margo’s phone ringing in the other room over the deafening roar of fear that echoed painfully in the first words of an orphaned three-year-old who’d thought he’d found a mother to love him.

Chapter 10  Rest Stop

Evan disconnected the call when he heard his mother’s voicemail pick up, again.  “Where is she?” 

“We’ll just try again in a while,” Alik reassured.  He was hoping there was a good reason why their mom wasn’t picking up the phone.

“There’s a rest stop two miles up.” Farrow’s voice broke the awkward silence that had saturated the first two hours of their drive away from Arkdone and Williams. 

“Are you saying you need to make a stop?” Alik asked.

“Well, yeah, I do.”

“Me, too,” Sloan’s little-girl voice piped up from the middle row of seats.

“I’d like to clean up a little,” Meg spoke up from the very back of the SUV in a voice that sounded completely alert, though she looked to have been sleeping the entire drive.

“I guess we’re stopping,” Alik nodded slowly, a frown pressed into his brow as he worried about who m
ight be tracking them.

“I could use some munchies,” Evan mused.  “Tell me we have quarters or dollar bills for the vending machine.” 

“I only have a fifty and credit cards,” Alik offered.

Farrow was shuffling through the glove box in search of coins, but coming up dry.  “I only found six quarters, a nickel, two dimes and a bunch of pennies stuck together with spilled soda.  Yuck.” 

“That’ll buy just enough food to make me mad,” Cole grumbled.

“Well, I could jury-rig the machines and we could leave the fifty inside,” Evan offered casually.

Cole sat upright and looked over at the thirteen-year-old with puppy-dog eyes.  “I love you, man.”

Evan rolled his eyes.  “It’s not a big deal.”

“Don’t you ever say that again, little brother!” Cole was nodding dramatically.  “This is a special moment between us.  My stomach is about to eat itself, I’m so hungry.  Your act of not-quite thievery is pure goodness, dude!”

“Maybe they’ll be the kind of machines that take credit cards,” Alik mumbled.

“Let’s hope so,” Farrow shook her head at the boys.

Creed was ignoring Cole and watching Meg instead.  She was lying on her side, her back to him.  Her dark hair spilling behind her, showing not only the beautiful curve of her shoulder and neck, but the angry, fresh cuts in
side the infinity symbol at the nape of her neck.

“Meg?” Creed was turned around in his seat so he could whisper into the back where his sun and moon just breathed a deep sigh.

“Hmm?”

“Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel?”

“Thoughtful.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“Who I am.”

“You have no memories at all?”

“The furthest back I can remember was a few hours ago on the helicopter.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Tell me about myself.”

The rest of the car
’s occupants chattered on about snacks and gas and bathroom breaks.  Meg and Creed were in their own world as they spoke.

“You are a metahuman.  Williams, the bloody guy in the chopper, experimented on us as children.  Our DNA was altered by an injection of what’s called the Infinite Serum.  Your mom, Dr. Margo Winter
, rescued you and your brothers from him, hiding you away for years.”

“I’ve lost all these memories—I’ve lost myself.”

The rest of the SUV had quieted to listen to their conversation.

“Meg, I was thinking,” Evan spoke up, “It’s possible the ‘perfect concussion’ Arkdone performed on you to wipe your memory could heal over time.”

“What do you mean?” Creed asked.

“He’s right.  I’ve been thinking the same,” Sloan nodded.

“I mean, the machine’s sub aural blast targeted the part of your brain that holds long-term memories—the hippocampus.  If I understand the method correctly, it basically created targeted damage to that part of your brain.  Like a tiny explosion went off right there.  Well, as a metahuman you have advanced healing capabilities.  While I doubt a human would ever recover the functioning of that damaged brain tissue, you may be different.”

“Are you saying I could get my memory back as my brain heals?”

“Maybe.  It’s possible.”

“When?”

“We may have rapid healing, Meg, but even our healing takes time.  I would like to monitor your memories over a period of the next year or two to look for progress.”

“That’s a long time,” Creed voiced the words Meg couldn’t.

“The injury she sustained was very serious.”

“Meanwhile, we can tell you all about your life before and you could make new memories in the here and now,” Alik offered gently.

Meg moved slowly to sit up, careful not to disturb the sleeping coydog who kept her so warm.

“There’s not much else that can be done, I suppose.” Meg couldn’t meet Creed’s gaze for a moment before she finally gave in to the draw
.  She looked at the chiseled-face, blue-eyed man who watched her with a mixture of devotion and concern.

“You and me, we were together?”

Creed tried not to cringe at her use of the past-tense.  He nodded, yes.

“Did I love you?”

“You did.  And I have loved you from the first moment we met.”

“How long were we a couple?”

“Not long enough,” Creed answered sadly.

“You gave me this ring.  We were serious.” She said the words as if she was trying them on for size.  She looked down at her hand and slowly spun the band on her ring finger.

“I know you don’t think you remember me, but a part of you must.  It’s how I found you out there at the bottom of the mountainside.”

Meg’s eyes watched his face as he spoke.  She nodded slowly, acknowledging his claim.  “But I don’t think it’s right for me to wear this,” she slipped the band off and held it out for him. 

Creed didn’t move.  His heart was squeezing so tightly in his chest, he couldn’t breathe. 

Meg’s hand hung in the air as she waited patiently for Creed to regain some sense of control.

“I appreciate that we had something, but I cannot expect you to wait to see if I regain my memory.”

“We could start over.” Creed didn’t care that desperation
laced his words.  His heart was breaking.

Meg shrugged softly, “Maybe, but it’s still not right for me to wear your ring while we’re getting reacquainted.”

The SUV was quiet, overflowing with Creed’s heartbreak, Meg’s coolness and everyone else’s awkward embarrassment at being unwilling witnesses to the break up.

Farrow
pulled into a parking spot in the otherwise empty rest stop.  The doors flew open the moment she put the car in park as everyone wanted to escape the uncomfortable air inside.

“How about those snacks?” Cole asked Alik and Evan as he reached way above his head, stretching.

“Bathroom!” Farrow and Sloan both chirped as they ran toward the female stick figure pictured beside a closed door.

Back in the car
, Creed held out his large hand.  Meg dropped the tiny platinum band into his palm and, with her two hands, closed his fingers around it.  Touching his skin made her heart leap inside her chest before crashing down at the pain she felt she’d created in him.  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.  “I don’t expect you to wait for me, but I would like to be your friend.  It’s the best I can offer right now.”  Inside, Meg was an emotional mess, but outwardly, she was holding it together.  She could feel her heart pulling her toward the man whose hand was warm and calloused in hers, but as much as she wanted him, she was terrified of him, too. 
How could any one person have that much control over me?
She thought.
I don’t want to be controlled by anything or anyone ever.

Afraid he would start sobbing if he looked at her one second longer, he nodded once, pulled his hand away from her touch and slipped the white band into the front pocket of his jeans.  He started to make his way to a side door when Meg’s voice stopped him.

“Creed?  I can sense you’re a good man with a loyal heart.  I don’t remember what they were, but I sense you made a lot of sacrifices for me—for others—and I just wanted to say, thank you.”

Creed nodded once, without looking at her and stepped out of the
SUV to get some fresh air.  He felt as if he were going to pass out from the emotional pain—the kind of pain he had no gift to turn off. 

From the far corner of the humble brick building that housed the bathrooms, water fountains and a small cluster of credit card
-accepting vending machines, Creed watched Alik help Meg out of the back of the SUV.  He tried to look away but found himself mesmerized by her confident, barefoot strides.

Evan walked over to Creed with a bottle of soda and a bag of peanuts.  “I’m sorry, Creed.  Give her time.  She has been through a lot.  She’s not herself right now.”

“Maybe this is the new Meg.” His eyes watched her perfect profile as she leaned down to sip water from the fountain, one of her hands gracefully holding her long hair back from the water.

Evan sighed and pat
ted the broken-hearted soldier on the back awkwardly.  “You know, I could be wrong about how long it will take for her memory to return.  Maybe her ability to tap into our emotions will help speed her memory’s return.  It is possible that her psychic abilities will act as a bridge to that portion of her brain.  We don’t really understand how her brain works to tap into the emotions of those around her and if she still has that ability, then maybe she’s closer to remembering than we thought.”

Creed was shaking his head slowly.  “If she gave me even a glimmer of hope, I’d wait forever, but she’s made her wishes clear.  I respect her too much not to give her the space she needs.”

“She knows how you feel about her.  She feels everything.  Let her learn to understand her feelings for you.  I think she’s just afraid of the pull she feels for you.  Imagine what it must be like to be her.  We’re all strangers, to her yet she’s navigating as best she can based on what?  Not her own memory, but on the memories and emotions she reads from us.  There are bound to be some points of light she just can’t take for face-value.  It’s in her nature to rebel; to walk her own path.”  Evan watched as his sister stepped out of the restroom, her arms crossed, refusing the drink Farrow was holding out to her. 

“As I said, Ev, this may be the new Meg and we’re all going to have to relearn her as much as she’s relearning herself.”  Creed forced himself to look away from her and stared at the scuffed tips of his boot instead.

Evan stood beside his friend in silence, hoping that just being near him would help.