Ricks road, p.6
Rick's Road, page 6
“I get it. I get it,” Rick said, now facing her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you’d done something wrong.”
“Good,” she snapped, her tone short, “because that is something I won’t tolerate.”
At that, the others looked at her with surprise.
He sighed. “You all have no idea what she’s like,” he teased, with an eye roll.
“And, if they’re lucky, they won’t need to engage with me as their nurse,” she declared in an equally crisp tone, “because they won’t be in the same condition you were in.”
“And I get it,” he stated. “I apologize if I made it sound like you were holding me against my will.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what you said, and I’m telling you right now that I’m not putting up with that. Terk, could you please find a way to get me home again.”
“Where is home anyway?” Wade stepped in curiously.
She looked at him. “Liverpool since a few years.”
He frowned. “That shouldn’t be too hard.” Then he looked back over at Terk. “Or is it?”
“We should all be home again,” Terk commented. “What I don’t know is whether our friend Rick here is capable of being on his own right now,” Terk stated, his gaze direct.
She frowned, then looked over at Rick and shrugged. “He thinks he is.”
“Just because he thinks he is,” Terk noted, with a note of amusement, “doesn’t mean anything, as you and I both well know.”
She groaned. “Then the honest answer is no, he’s not. But he won’t let me do anything, and we’ve brought him out of his coma, so he can do whatever the hell he wants to now.” It was obvious she was still really pissed.
Shaking his head, Rick looked over at Terk. “I don’t get it.”
“Of course not,” Terk stated, “because you have no idea just how much Cara’s been involved in keeping you alive.”
“Or that you’ve been keeping him safe,” she added. Terk nodded slowly.
“Of course,” Rick admitted, “but sounds like none of the team really knew the full extent of that.”
She looked at Rick, then around at the others. “You do all realize that Terk’s been keeping all your energy up and heavily focused on healing, while at the same time keeping shields up, trying to guard you all, right?” she snapped, her hands on her hips, as she glared at each and every one of them. “So, if any one of you thinks that you’re doing this all on your own, you’re wrong. It’s been Terk the whole way.”
Chapter 4
Considering the speed with which Cara had been ushered out of the main room into a room of her own, she figured that the team had decided to take matters into their own hands and to have private discussions without her. She couldn’t blame them, but, at the same time, it felt odd.
She’d been part of Rick’s life for the last couple weeks, at a very deep level. She knew the danger of becoming too attached. But she couldn’t do this work by staying detached. When she left herself open at that level, all kinds of things could happen. She should have expected this, and, in a way, she did. It was a hard reality, and she would just have to accept the facts of life in her world right now.
In this case, a little more so than usual, and that was her own fault. She shouldn’t have gotten this heavily involved in his care, but it had been necessary in order to keep him alive. She walked over to the bed in her new room and sat down, wondering what she was supposed to do now. She was tired, but it was more than the effects of the adrenaline that had kicked in and dissipated. She was tired inside and out. She’d been on full watch for a very long time, and, as always, when this kind of change happened in her system, she felt the need for a break on all levels.
She had an en suite bathroom, so she walked in and washed her face, as she contemplated what she was supposed to do next, now that she had time on her hands. Could she just walk out of here and expect them to let her go? Would Terk keep everything floating energy-wise without her? She hoped so because she didn’t necessarily want to stay here. Being a useless wheel at this point in time in her life wasn’t a goal. She wanted to move on and to find something useful to do again.
She had known that Rick wouldn’t be with her forever, but she hadn’t expected her care to come to such an abrupt end either. Yet she knew Terk well enough to know that absolutely nothing was ever normal around him, at least not in the few dealings she’d had with him.
He’d been a huge help to her at one point in time, and she’d been more than happy to help him out this time, but what was she to do now? Stumped, she curled up on the bed, wondering if she could possibly sleep, but her nerves were jangled. Everything was too stirred up to relax enough to actually let go. Trust was a hard thing, and, when you were like her, it was even harder.
When a knock came on her door, she said, “Come in.” She sat up to see Rick entering, a cup of coffee in his hand. “Is that for me or for you?” she asked in a wry tone.
He smiled. “For you of course.”
She nodded. “Ah, so the tables have turned, have they?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Would that be so wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t really know what that feels like.”
He stopped for a moment on his way toward her and then took several more steps. “Maybe it’s time you found out.”
“Maybe.” She sighed. “It’s never been an issue either way.”
He frowned. “It doesn’t seem like something that would be a problem for you.” She looked at him, silently questioning him. “Obviously I don’t know you all that well in some ways, but I do feel like I know you in others.”
She laughed. “A lot of that is the energy work. It’s very deceptive.”
“Maybe not,” he argued. “One of the things that we learn with Terk all the time is that he doesn’t lie, so when you do find things on an energy level, you’re getting more of a truth than you were expecting.”
She nodded. “And that’s a good lesson to learn,” she agreed, with a serious tone. “It’s not that easy to learn either, so if you can do it now, all the better.”
“And you have obviously had a lot more energy experience than I had any inkling of.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter though, does it? Have you found a way to get me home again?”
“No, and honestly we have some concern that you may not be safe. Once these bad guys track down who was with me in that apartment, it won’t be hard for them to find you.” He hesitated and then sat quietly beside her. “Did you leave anybody in Liverpool who might become a target?”
She stared at him for a long moment, then slowly shook her head. “Meaning, do I live alone? Yes, I do. Do I have friends and family there? No, not really,” she murmured. “Almost all my friends and family are gone.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to ask that question, but I needed to.”
“And I appreciate you thinking about other people in my life, but I came over here to do a job, and I wasn’t expecting to stay over here beyond the end of it.”
“We’ll get you back safe and sound as soon as we can. I promise.”
She stared at him. “But you can’t really promise that, can you? Not honestly. That attack at the apartment was no fluke, and they were looking for you.”
“I think they were looking for any activity that would confirm that I was still alive. And, as each of us comes out of the coma,” he shared, “they’re hunting for the others even harder.”
She considered him for a moment, seeing and hearing some truth to his words. “It also explains why Terk is trying to bring people closer together geographically, so he can keep his energy focused on one area and not split apart,” she murmured.
“Yeah, that makes perfect sense,” Rick agreed. “Look. I don’t even know how much of this latest hunt by the bad guys had you as a target, but we don’t want anything to happen to you. Especially not after you were such a huge help to me.”
“Ah, so you’re really keeping me alive out of gratitude, huh?” she asked, with a cheeky grin.
He seemed startled by her comment; then he shook his head and froze. “I don’t even know how to take that. I mean, obviously I’m delighted that you’re not overwrought and crying like many women would be in this situation, but I certainly don’t want you to think that we’re taking any of this lightly.”
“No, I know that,” she said. “But, while I’m here, is there anything I can do? I need to be busy, and I’ll go stir crazy if I’m not.”
“A couple of us are putting together a meal right now.”
“Why you? Why are you not resting?” she asked, giving him a hard look.
“Because, like you, I felt like I needed to do something. Everybody else has already been living a life for the last few weeks, while I was under whatever coma you guys deemed safe for me,” he noted, with an eye roll. “I feel like I’m late to the mission, and now it feels like I have a lot to make up for.”
“I get it,” she stated, “but that doesn’t mean you need to do it all at once.”
He looked at her. “I know. Really I do, but, at the same time, it seems odd to be back in the land of the living and not doing anything. I was always a doer. I was always busy. I was involved pretty heavily. So to find the guys here are ahead of me in this, whatever the hell happened,” he explained, “it feels like I need to play catch up.”
She nodded. “So you go from being a coma patient to cooking dinner in what, two days?”
He smiled. “I did warn you that I heal fast.”
“There’s healing fast, and then there’s healing fast.”
“We’ll chalk it up to your skills then,” he teased, with a bright smile.
“You mean, to the energy work?”
“You and I will have to talk about that”—he gave her a hard look—“because I had no idea that you were doing anything.”
“So what difference does it make?” she asked.
With that, he shrugged, then attempted to turn and leave.
She hopped up, coffee in hand. “Let me help with dinner at least.”
“You could try just relaxing for once,” he suggested. “You worked hard looking after me.”
She smiled. “I don’t know how much hard work that was,” she murmured, “but I like to be busy.” He frowned, but she walked past him and out of the room. “If you guys are done with your private discussion,” Cara said, “then no reason why I can’t come out and join you, is there?”
Rick asked, “What private discussion?” But a note of humor was in his voice.
She looked at him and smiled. “Exactly.”
He laughed and walked her into the main computer room. “She doesn’t want to stay in her room,” he announced. “She wants to help.”
At that, one of the other women—Tasha, she thought—looked up and smiled. “Welcome back,” she said.
Cara smiled. “I figured if I gave you guys enough private time to have your secret talks, then maybe I would be welcome afterward.”
After that came a moment of silence, then Terk started laughing. “As if it’ll do any good with you.”
She smiled. “But at least it gives you the semblance of privacy.”
At that, Damon frowned. “I’m sorry, but we need to be filled in on exactly what’s going on here.”
Terk shrugged. “I asked her to look after Rick because of his particular state. She has energetic and healing abilities that he needed most desperately.”
“When you say that”—Rick stared, his gaze going from Cara to Terk—“was I in worse shape than the others?”
“No, not necessarily worse, but you were rattled in a different way. Each of you needed very different things. In your case, it was all about energy, and that’s what we were trying to preserve.”
“My senses?” he asked.
Terk nodded. “Yes, exactly. I’m not sure if that would have mattered to you that you still had your senses when you woke up, but I was pretty sure that it would impact your life forever to lose them permanently.”
“I never thought about it like that,” Rick admitted. “I just assumed we were all in the same boat.” He turned to look at Cara, as she sat nearby, studying the curious faces around her. “You told me that you owed Terk a favor.”
“He’d been a big help at one point in time in my life,” she stated. “So, when he called, I didn’t have any reason to turn him down, and it gave me the opportunity to pay him back.”
“And you do know that no payback was required,” Terk murmured.
She shrugged. “Not everybody sees a debt as a requirement to be paid,” she noted, “but, when somebody calls for help, it’s part of my nature to respond.”
“And that”—Terk nodded—“is quite accurate. She is a nurse and has a history of working with people in long-term comas.”
At that, Rick faced Cara. “You did mention something about that. When you looked after a patient, it could go either way.”
“Sure,” she agreed. “It all entirely depends on how much of their cord is still functioning and how much they actually are still invested.”
“And you can tell that?” Sophia asked, astonished.
She nodded. “In Rick’s case, his cord was already partially severed.”
Silence swept the room.
*
Although Rick had heard her mention that before, he hadn’t really recognized the relevance of it, but, as soon as he heard the words yet again, he understood. “And so, you did what you could to save me.” He nodded. “Thanks for that.”
“Not sure that thanks are needed,” she noted. “I did what I could do. I didn’t know anything about the situation you were in until Terk here contacted me, and then I came, and luckily you’re still with us.”
“And mostly intact,” he added, with an eye roll.
She grinned. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about the core personality.”
He stared at her for a moment, and then his laughter burst free. “Oh my, definitely a breath of fresh air.” He looked at the others, who were still staring at both of them curiously.
“I didn’t even know something like that was possible,” Lorelei noted quietly.
“You never really know what’s possible until you find an area that you specialize in and see what you can do to help. I’ve brought back quite a few coma victims,” Cara murmured, “but I can’t help all of them.”
“No, of course not. Nobody can. The fact that you could even help Rick is wonderful, and thank you for that,” Tasha said immediately. “Now, Cara, if we can get you back home, safe and sound, I’ll feel like we haven’t taken advantage of you.”
Cara laughed. “That’s what people do. You take advantage and hope that it doesn’t appear that way.”
They looked at her in surprise.
Cara shrugged. “I mean, I came because Terk needed me, but did he take advantage of me? Potentially. Did I care? Not really, because I knew what I was doing was important.”
“And we appreciate that,” Terk stated.
She smiled. “And I know you do. I could also tell from Rick’s energy that he was a strong person and that he was quite likely to survive. It’s very depressing to work with patients and to know that they’re already mostly gone and don’t have the energy or the will to come back.”
At that point in time, Terk stepped up. “Well, all that is very interesting, but what it doesn’t do is help us get out of this mess.”
“And is getting out of this mess what we’re after?” Cara asked, looking at him. “I assumed you already had a dozen plans in that head of yours.”
He nodded. “I do, at least a dozen plans, but that doesn’t mean any of them will come to fruition.”
“Nope, but I trust that you will do what you need to do or what you see as the best course of action,” she murmured.
“I’d like to hope so,” he noted, “but, as you and I both know, that doesn’t always come to pass.”
“All right, there’s an awful lot of innuendo happening here,” Sophia stated. “No offense intended, but would somebody mind filling us in, so that we’re not guessing?”
Terk shrugged. “I helped her brother at one point in time, and, through that, I found her abilities. I tried to recruit her to the team, but she wasn’t having anything to do with it.”
At that, the team turned to look at her.
Rick smiled, as he reached over, patted her hand. “Our loss, but I’m very grateful that, when Terk called on you again, you accepted the challenge.”
She nodded. “At the same time, I had to make some decisions as to what I wanted to do about my future.”
“I don’t understand that part.” Sophia sat at her computer, her arms crossed, still staring at her. “How does that affect your future?”
“Well, because it was obvious that Rick was in danger, so I knew it was quite possible that he would be hunted while he was comatose. Therefore, it would take some time and effort to keep him safe.”
At that, Damon whistled. “Oh, my God. You’re a guardian, aren’t you?”
“Well, that’s not a term I’ve used very much,” she admitted, “but, technically speaking, yes.”
The others erupted in a clamor of exclamations.
“What does that even mean?” Lorelei cried out. “Somebody needs to explain it to me because I don’t understand very much of this at all.” She looked over at Cara and added, “Sorry. I’m the least acquainted with all this energy stuff. I work for the government and, of course, knew the team and all, but I didn’t know all the details and the particulars. Enough to get me targeted but not enough to understand.”
“Interesting.” Cara studied her face. “Because you have quite a bit of talent yourself.”
Lorelei stared at her in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“You,” she began. “You have the ability to communicate on another level, don’t you?”
She flushed. “Yes, but only with him.” She said, pointing to Gage.
“Well, that’s just because that’s where your focus is,” Cara stated calmly. “You could open that up to the rest of the team, I’m sure. The men are linked, and that makes it much easier to link to them.”
