Triplicity

Chapter 12 - ISAAC

My eyes crack open a fraction of an inch. I'm lying on a bed with clean white sheets. I can't turn my head, but I can feel tubes in my arm. Two blurry figures stand a few feet away, deep in conversation. I strain to hear them.

"He'll be okay?"

"Should be. Um, Commander...we found a lot of blood on his boots."

"His?"

"Well, no."

One of them leans forward and his voice drops. I can't tell what he's saying. The other person—her voice is strangely familiar—steps back suddenly and covers her mouth. She looks away for a few moments. "The children?" she asks hoarsely.

"We did a DNA scan. They're hers."

"Do they know?"

"We're not sure."

The woman pauses. "I'll go talk to them."

She heads for the door, then stops. She turns back to say something to the man, and I see her face. Horror and guilt floods me. I try to sit up. "Valerie." My voice comes out as more of a croak. "Valerie."

The woman looks at me in surprise. "Isaac?"

"I'm sorry." My voice breaks. Pain explodes in my side and I fall back. "You know I had to...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

"I—" She covers her mouth again, then she shakes her head and turns to the man. "He shouldn't be awake, Doctor."

"I know. His anesthesia's wearing off. I'll put him back under."

The doctor disappears from view, and my head lolls back.

When I come to, my vision's still blurry. I see Valerie sitting on a chair nearby, her back hunched. I try my voice. "Valerie?"

"Think again, Blue."

My vision begins to clear. "Resalia."

"Bingo." She looks up. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying, and it's obvious she hasn't slept.

Hasn't slept?

I frown. "How long was I out?"

She checks her watch. "Ten hours, give or take."

"What?" I sit bolt upright and immediately regret it. I lie back down, breathing heavily, and wait until the white-hot pain in my side subsides to a somewhat tolerable level. "I have to be back in my quarters. I'm going to be arrested for treason."

"Relax. You came here early enough. It's still nighttime."

"Oh. Okay." I allow myself to calm down. The memories of everything that recently happened rush back to me, and I look at Resalia. "I'm sorry," I say. I've said it too many times to her already (by accident), but I hope she knows what I'm talking about.

I can tell from the look in her eyes that she does. I see a flash of metal in her hands, and I realize she's fidgeting with the yin-yang necklace, the one that Lian Hua had kept for her. She presses her lips together. "Tell me what happened."

I gulp. At first, the details are fuzzy, but my memory slowly returns. I start with when I was in the archives, but I can tell she's impatient. Still, I drag it out as long as possible until I finally get to the part where I reach the rendezvous point. Then, I close my eyes, seeing it all over again in my head, and tell the rest of the story.

When I open my eyes, Resalia's staring at the wall, eerily silent. A minute later, she puts her head in her hands. "I never knew she had children," she says quietly.