| |
JADE GOT IN MICAH’S SUV and buckled her belt without a word, her throat thick and tight.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said, avoiding his eyes, blinking away the moisture on her lashes.
Micah put the vehicle in gear and Jade took a deep breath, trying to blank her mind.
She glanced at Micah when he stopped in an empty end of the parking lot, hedged by trees. He turned off the key and leaned back, looking at her. Waiting.
The understanding on his face, the sympathy, cracked the walls she had built up around her control, around her feelings.
“My momma didn’t remember who I was,” she said, voice choked, hot tears flooding her eyes and rolling down her cheeks before she even finished her sentence.
When he opened his arms, she didn’t even think about it. She threw herself into them.
He put an arm under her butt and scooped her up, pulling her across the console until she was squarely on his lap. She clung to him and cried.
His chest rumbled under her cheek before she heard any sound. But low and quiet, Micah started singing.
She couldn’t stop crying to listen properly, like she wanted. She was too upset, her body shaking with her sobs.
But his voice, so deep and tender, sent his song throughout her whole body. Each note painful and hopeful at the same time, it spoke of loving memories and the inevitable pain of losing family. Or maybe that was just her interpretation, but it didn’t matter.
By the time the last note rumbled through the cab of the SUV, her tears slowed and she could breathe evenly, though her heart was still wringing itself out.
She held on to Micah, listened to his heartbeat, the two of them alone in a realm of mist and trees and sorrow.
It was the first time anyone comforted her in years. She hadn’t allowed herself to seek comfort from anyone, not even her ex. Maybe he’d felt like she didn’t need him, and that was why he left. He hadn’t needed to take her gems too, but perhaps she’d been pushing him away even before that. But she wouldn’t seek comfort, wouldn’t allow it, because she had to be strong. For her mother, for herself. To keep herself from cracking open the way she just had in Micah’s arms.
And yet... he’d let her break apart and then he’d put her back together with his quiet comfort and his song. The last time he’d sang, he’d done it for himself. This time, it was all for her. And it worked.
It was a revelation that she needed Micah. Wanted him, and needed him. Needed his comfort, and his company, and his singing, and his solidness.
“Thank you,” she said, squeezing his wide shoulders as best as she could. She was touched, a warm glow in her heart beside the cold pain of her mother forgetting her face.
“Welcome,” he said.
She looked at him and he looked back, and though she had to look bad from crying, she didn’t duck away. He’d seen her covered in sweat and dirt, bedraggled in mud and rain. Even if she had red eyes, and limp hair, and a runny nose, and no makeup, he still looked at her like she was beautiful. He always had, hadn’t he? From the first moment they’d met.
She brought her hand up to rest on his heavy jaw, and though the wounds in her heart were still fresh, she felt something else fresh there as well. A beautiful ache when she looked at the man who protected her and her claim, who helped her, who held her and sang to her.
She kissed him, and then pulled back all the way to her side of the car. Swiping at her wet cheeks, she asked, “Did you finish what you need to do?”
“No.” Micah’s hands tightened on the wheel, making it creak under his grip. “The families at our base need some stuff from the store and...” He turned half an eye toward her. “And I could use help shopping. I don’t know what half of it is.”
Was Micah blushing? There were two rosy spots high on his cheeks.
Jade pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. Micah needed help shopping. Well, wasn’t that cute?
“You’ve never mentioned the people you work with before.” Not that surprising, considering, but now she was insanely curious. “You all live together, too?”
He shrugged. “It’s a big place. And it’s easier to manage assignments that way.”
She wanted to know more, wanted to know everything about him, and these other people, and his work, but she didn’t want to overwhelm him with questions. Not right now.
He’d held her in his arms and sang to her while she cried. Helping him shop was such a tiny thing she could do in return. There was a Supercenter down the road, and it couldn’t hurt to pick up some stuff for herself too.
She put her hand over Micah’s and smiled at him. “Let’s go shopping.”
––––––––
MICAH STOOD BY THE carts, feeling more out of place than he had in his entire life. Brightly lit, cold, noise blaring over the speakers, and full of people, the ‘supermarket’ was a special version of hell.
“Ready?” Jade asked, cart in hand.
“No,” he said, watching people push past them and join the traffic inside of the store. “I’m not very fond of public places.”
“I can tell,” Jade grinned, “Have your list?”
He handed it to her.
“Baby food? Diapers? Wipes?” Her eyebrows went up.
“They’re for the babies.”
“Okay, then. Let’s shop.”
Micah followed Jade through the store, watching as she picked things off the shelves and threw them in the cart.
With her doing all the work, he couldn’t help notice everything else. People shouting, babies crying, phones ringing and a constant drone of squeaky carts and conversations and background music. The bright, harsh strip lighting.
The stares.
The humans that veered out their way as they came down the aisle, or whispered to their companions as the passed. He itched to run away, to leave Jade with the list and leave. He wouldn’t do that, but... he really missed the base right then, where he could blend in or fade out and they let him, for the most part. But they were his people. These were not his people.
“Micah, can you grab some of those plums, please? Ripe ones?”
Thankful for the job and the distraction, Micah eyed the slanted box of purple fruit in front of him.
“How do you pick a ripe one?” He hadn’t wanted to ask, but he was completely at a loss.
“One way is you pick it up and squeeze it,” Jade said, holding up an apple as she put some in a bag. “If it’s hard, it’s not ready yet. It should have a little give.”
Micah picked up a plum in his hand and a tenth of a second later, purple juice and skin were oozing out from between his fingers.
Jade burst out laughing. “Gently!” she said between chuckles, “You’re supposed to squeeze it gently!”
He stood there, completely unsure what to do, prickles of heat traveling over his skin as other people looked in their direction.
Jade grabbed his arm and hurried him to a trash can where she had him deposit the mangled fruit and then found some paper towels to clean off his hand with.
He stood there and let her.
“Sorry, I should have been clearer,” she said as she wiped his hand clean, trying not to laugh. “You have to just barely squeeze it.” Her touch and her amused eyes soothed his embarrassment to a manageable level.
“Oh,” he said, the corner of his mouth ticking up despite the bit of heat still in his face.
“And I think it’s safe to say you picked a ripe one.” She grinned, tossing the last of the paper towels away.
When they got to the baby section, Jade looked for the right size diapers. He was once again clueless. There were numbers beside them on the list, but he did not understand what they meant. As she loaded his arms with the packages, the toys caught his eye. Hanging on the shelf beside him, bright, colorful, sweet.
Jade noticed him staring and came to his side.
“Should I get one of these? For the new baby?”
She looped an arm through his. “That’s sweet of you. When is it due?”
“I don’t know. Soon.” It seemed like it could be really soon, but he didn’t know much about these things.
“Okay. Is it a boy or a girl?”
Had Levi or Brooke mentioned it? Did they know? And how? “I’m not sure.”
“Oookay. Well, then. You’ll want to get something that would work for either.”
Clueless, he cast her a desperate look.
With a soft laugh, she reached out to brush a finger down a tiny yellow blanket with a bear on the end. “How about this one?”
The gentle, wistful smile on her face made him certain. “Yes. That one.”
She plucked it from the peg and put it in their overflowing cart. “Need anything else? That’s everything on the list.”
“I should buy something for Jackson, too.”
“Jackson?” she asked, curiosity in her voice.
“He’s the older baby. I hold him sometimes, to help calm him down.” Why had he said that? It was irrelevant.
“You’ve never mentioned anyone else from your base. Just the babies.” The curiosity on Jade’s face deepened as she stared at him.
Heat crept up his neck, all the way to his ears. “I like babies.” They were so tiny and innocent, precious. They were everything about this world that was worth protecting from Chaos.
Jade’s grin was immediate, her eyes softening. “Everybody likes babies. How old is Jackson?” She turned back to the toys.
Micah counted mentally. He was born at the end of winter, and it was nearing the end of summer now, but he didn’t know exactly. “About six months.”
“Okay.” Jade picked out a plastic toy with lots of colors and doodads, much different from the soft, simple toy for Brooke and Levi’s baby. “This one says ‘six months plus’. How about it?”
He took it of the peg, held it in his palm. Jackson would probably like the bright colors and all the things he could touch and bite. Everything ended up in his mouth lately. He also had more personality in his eyes now, more awareness, than he had when he first arrived at the base. He would like this.
Micah set it in the shopping cart.
“Okay, you ready?”
When he nodded, Jade heaved the cart into motion.
He stopped her with a hand over hers on the handle. “Let me push.”
He saw the small flash of resistance in her eyes at his offer, but hopefully she could read his, too. He wanted to help to be nice, because it was easier for him, but not because he thought she was weak.
With a smile, she stepped to the side and let him take her place. And when he put his hands on the handle, she put one of hers over his. Not helping push the cart, just... touching. A casual closeness he hadn’t had with anyone else in decades. Maybe ever.
It made him smile, made his chest warm.
It was only when they got to the checkout line that Micah realized Jade’s presence had made everything else fade away. Now the chaos closed in on him again, the narrow aisles, people in front and behind them, hemming them in. The constant, multi-layered beeps of items being scanned on all sides of him.
Jade’s hand lifted, and then her arm was wrapping around his, the length of her body pressed against his side.
He looked down at her, and she smiled up at him.
“You really don’t like public places, do you? It’s like you’ve never been grocery shopping before.”
“I haven’t,” he said. He felt her surprise through the places they were touching, but whatever her reply would be was interrupted by the cashier blandly greeting them.
And then they were unloading the cart, piling what they could on the moving belt.
“Wow, That’s a lot of stuff.”
Micah nodded. It was a lot of stuff. And he sincerely hoped he’d never have to do this ‘shopping’ thing again.
When the cashier gave them the total, he pulled the stack of bills from his deep pockets.
As they walked out of the store, Jade murmured, “You don’t need the money I’m paying you at all, do you?”
“No,” he said, as they put the purchases in the back of his SUV.
Money was no object to them, to the Warriors. Nothing to chase, nothing to covet. They had everything they needed, and if they didn’t, the gems he pulled from the ground paid for the rest.
Jade was quiet until they reached the road leading to the base.
“This is how you get to your base?”
“Yes,” he murmured, glancing at her. Everything about it was designed to turn people away, a series of natural obstacles that would make even the most curious of humans retreat.
It was working on Jade. When they reached the giant boulder in the middle of the misty road, she put her hand on his arm.
But he knew the way around, to safety... because he’d placed it there.
Then they were past the barriers, driving through the twilight forest.
When they arrived at the base, Micah said, “Wait here.” He stepped out and dialed Ajax.
“Yo,” Ajax answered,
“I’m here.”
“Roger,” Ajax said. “I’ll unlock the doors. Put it in the kitchen.”
Micah disconnected as he heard the loud click of the lock being disengaged on the doors. He shouldered two big boxes and carried them inside. One more trip and everything was inside.
When he got back in the driver’s seat, Jade was studying the outside of the abandoned-looking warehouse that was their base. “Who did you say you worked for again?” she asked, voice suspicious.
“I didn’t,” he replied with a pointed look.
But he had to grit his teeth on the drive back to the mountain because an unfamiliar, baffling urge came over him.
To open his mouth, and tell Jade, not just about the base, the other Warriors, his mission... but everything.
If only he could put words to the feelings in his heart.