Take a Shot

Gift

"Hey, Em!"

It wasn't surprising he'd found me here. I'd spent more than my fair share of time while not out on missions, in this exact spot.

I stared in the high window of the nursery, watching our King play with his small daughter. Matt had been involved in the set-up of this nursery and was in charge of watching her when both our King and Queen were busy, which was soon to be less and less as we hit mid-year and headed into the cold season again. Matt being involved in anything always piqued my interest, and they'd done a good job with the nursery given their timeframe had been about 4 days nearly a year ago, now. The paint was even, there were a few chairs for adults and plenty of blocks, and soft, chewable toys, and books, things of that nature.

Matt tossed his arm around my shoulder, leaning towards the window. "I'm gonna start thinkin' you like kids if I keep finding you here!"

"Shut up."

I had never liked children. Many grunts in Harmony brought their kids into the castle, either because they lived in the barracks or because they couldn't find a babysitter and we now had a service for that. And being around kids thus far had sort of activated my predator drive; they were small, and annoying, and dirty, and easily killed. Not that I had killed any children of any of Harmony's staff, but there had, to my knowledge, been a directive from Geechis to keep children away from the experiments due to unpredictability, and most of the grunts saw me as an experiment like the Triad, even though I'm not. But anyway, I didn't like kids.

"She's just so small..." I said, voice quiet. "Her hair..."

"Yep, bright as a nightlight, just like Joy and Geechis. She'll never be anything but a Trankil, that's for sure," Matt chuckled, squinting in the window. I tried not to flinch as I looked away from him. "Still, it is amazing how much she looks like Lea, too. I think the eyes come from her side." I nodded, staying quiet.

Something about this small, silver-haired heiress was different. I'd been standing here - watching her or watching over her? did it matter? - for so long I'd lost track of the time. She didn't activate that predator drive, or at least not yet. Was it Geechis's declaration of her safety here in the castle? Was it that she wasn't old enough to be annoying? Was it the giant, white dog I could see half-asleep in the furthest corner who followed that baby and, consequently, her keeper, everywhere? Was it sympathy for the horrors I knew she was going to endure as a royal of Harmony?

Or was it my relationship to the man laughing on the floor as he bicycled her legs? Was it the potential of my relationship to her, a small bit of the same blood running through our veins?

It didn't matter. I shook my head, looking over at my partner. "Were you looking for me?"

"Yep! You're off this week for Uzien, right?" Matt asked, probably for at least the second time. I shrugged, looking back in the window.

"Is it that time again already?" I muttered. The middle of orolus, our single day of 15 full hours of daylight before the planet began turning back towards the dark days of hiberia. The princess had been born a few days before Uzien two years ago, now. Lea had been in labor for longer than the sun had been out that day, and she'd been recovered enough to rest in the full 15-hour Uzien-day sun, outside, with her new baby. I'd seen precious few people so happy...nor so exhausted.

"Yeah. I've got the full week off for the holiday. I guess Gee is feeling generous this year."

"That sounds uncharacteristic."

"True. Maybe he's tired of trying to keep up with little Roma," Matt chuckled, putting a finger on the glass. The dog stirred, lifting its head and staring at the window. I froze, but Matt simply waved at the storm dog. The creature shook its head, ears flopping, then laid its head back down on its large paws. If our King noticed the storm dog's attention to us, he didn't show it. "I know I am. I'll probably still spend a lot of time with our toddling princess, though."