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| attentions back to the boy bundled up on the cot. "But you and me are still gonna talk, got that?" Rick was answered by the congested snore of the boy. Marion ([email protected]) December 24, 2002 Alex lay shivering under a considerable layer of blankets trying to go to sleep so he could get rid of the fear and anger, which had threatened to consume him in the last hour. His skin was still all wrinkled from the ocean and his hair still damp, whether with the salt water or with a cold sweat he did not know. All of the emotions that were running through his body were threatening to consume him, but he had not the energy to will them away. He could not stand Kit. The kid was treating him like complete trash-- "Your old man ever hit you? Pity, if you was my kid, I'd carry a two by four around!" He rolled his eyes and mocked Kit's voice, letting out a sharp sound of disgust as he did so. Suddenly an enormous shudder overtook his body and he began to shiver uncontrollably. He hugged the blankets more tightly around him and squeezed his eyes shut. Just then Evelyn came tiptoeing in through the door in case Alex was asleep. "Alex, are you ok sweet heart?" she whispered. He couldn't answer without his teeth chattering and his voice shaking. He tried but nothing came out. Evelyn rushed over to him when all that was emitted was a hoarse squeak. She placed a motherly hand on his shoulder and felt him shivering, then hurriedly that hand moved in a flash up to his forehead where she found it burning up. "Oh no..." she murmured before she ran out of his room to get Rick. Rick was sitting sound asleep in a chair in Kit's makeshift room next to the cot where the young man lay asleep, the lump on his head swollen and purple. Rick was in the middle of an extremely intriguing dream when he was shaken awake by an extremely frazzled looking Evelyn. "What is it?" He mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "It's Alex, he's sick. He won't stop shaking." That got Rick's attention because he sat bolt upright in the chair. Alex? Rick immediately thought back to how much he had yelled at his son earlier for his escapades and guilt washed over him. He hoped that nothing was seriously wrong with Alex because they were out at sea. How on earth are we supposed to get medical help? Rick decided that he would not worry until a serious problem presented itself so instead he stood up stretched and followed his wife to where Alex was lying huddled under his blankets. Rick felt his forehead and sighed. He seemed to have stopped shaking but his fever was pretty high. Rick sat down next to his form on the bed and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Alex, why did you have to come with us? We wanted to prevent something like this from happening." Alex managed a whisper "I still would have gotten sick Dad, and if Aunt Prune had, you know...popped off while I was there, there would be no one to take care of me." "Alex, your Aunt is not going to 'pop off' any time soon. She may smell funny, but she's got it where it counts kid." "Oh, and where's that?" Alex said, his voice rose and was cut off by coughing which racked through his entire chest and left him breathless. "She's got it in her heart." "Right...and I suppose that's a prune too." Rick chuckled softly. "Go to sleep son, you need your rest." Then he shuffled Evelyn out of the room, and closed the door softly, wrapping his arms around his wife. The next morning dawned bright, without any trace of the malice the ocean had shown the previous night. Evelyn groaned, stretched and plopped her feet onto the cold floor of the yacht. "Brr.. " she said her feet recoiling from the icy surface." She looked over at the bed and noticed that Rick was not still in bed so she wrapped her bathrobe around her and moseyed into Alex's room where she found him sleeping peacefully. She refilled his glass of water on the bedside table and pulled the discarded blankets up around his shoulders so that he was covered from the early morning chill. Next she ventured out onto the deck where the two lifeboats had been moored; their tarps successfully strapped back upon them. Ardeth and her brother were both asleep. Both were snoring lightly and both were covered by their blankets. Then, resuming her search for her husband she traveled to where Kit had hopefully spent out the remainder of the night. Upon reaching the door she could hear angry voices emanating from within- "Why should I have to answer to you? You are not my father." "Oh, well a good question might be, who is your father? Does your father know where you are, why you are here, or even who you are?" "Listen 'Oh smart one' my father wouldn't give a rats ass where I am if he was still alive, and if he was I probably wouldn't care either." "I am sorry to hear that Christopher, but that doesn't explain to me why you are here. I want to know exactly why you broke in last night. I want to know why, if you were intent on causing my family bodily harm you saved my son, and I want to know what happened to your father, and why you treat him with so much disrespect? Then, and only then can you go back to sleep." "For your information I loved my father. I adored him. But it wasn't good enough for him. He went out one night, got himself shot, and didn't come back. That was seven years ago. Let's see, my mum died when I was four, tuberculosis; my sister when I was eight, the whooping cough, and Mr. Sonderburg--my grandfather, just two days ago, murdered. For why I am here, I have come to help you, but am thinking of leaving because I hate you people. There is too much emotion here, too much love, too much fear, it's all welling up from a core of adventure. I like the adventure but hate the emotion, and if you want my cooperation I suggest you tone it down a bit." "I am not going to ask my family to change because of some half-witted kid waltzing in and saying so. I don't give a DAMN if I am related to you, and I don't plan to anytime soon. And if you tell me ONE more time that I am your uncle your nose will end up on the other side of your skull." "And you Misseur, if you deny one more time your affiliation with me, I will blow a whole in your head so big you will be able to see that you have never had any brains worth giving half a fuck for." Hearing this Evie gasped. Rick heard her sudden intake of breath and rushed to the door. Her face was white as she looked in on the scene. Kit was sitting in his bed, his eyes flaming, his head swollen while Rick had only concern written on his face. Marion ([email protected]) January 6, 2003 Ancient Egypt Nefret surveyed the horizon before her, noting the pleasing way that the sand dunes rolled radially outward from her. She sighed. It was a heavy sigh, full of depression. The golden sunrays glinted off of her jet-black hair, turning it almost crimson in the fading light. She reached a hand slowly down to her swollen belly and tears formed in her eyes at the despairing thought that her husband would not be here to witness the birth of their first child. Ardeth had no more than touched her cheek to signal his departure to his time, and she missed him more than she had missed anyone before, even her dead sister. She looked up to the purple sky with her tear-streaked face and prayed silently to Asyria to forgive her. She knew that her pregnancy was throwing her otherwise subdued emotions out of whack, but she also knew just how much she loved Ardeth, so she allowed herself to realize that half of the tears were reasonable, but not all of them. She wanted his arms to fold around her in the protective way that she cherished. He was the only one that could ever make him feel safe. She missed his kisses, the tender way their mouths mated, and worst of all she missed his sensual touch. Her body ached for him, in a way that no other man had ever been blessed with her yearning. She did not even hear the footsteps behind her until she was graced with Gabrielle's warm presence beside her. "You been thinking of Ardeth again?" No, I am not going to cry. Nefret told herself. But, no sooner had she thought that then tears welled up in her eyes and she was sobbing in no time. Gabrielle gathered Nefret into her arms and rocked her back and forth, talking to her gently, speaking words of encouragement. Slowly she felt herself being led out of the chill night air and into the confines of their thatched house, then slowly over to a table that had warm water on it, carried fresh from the Nile. "You need rest my dear." Gabrielle cooed. |