"Father, you don't know how hard it was to deal with that from my end. I can't tell you how many times I thought about cutting myself off from you and Gaelar N'Seith. Whenever Naldill would taunt me about this or that, usually about my lack of power, I considered it."

"I'm glad you stayed the course, child. Perhaps you will forgive me someday for allowing those things to happen."

"It made me more determined that Alliance citizens should be protected, father. There was a benefit, I think, although I suffered through it."

"You have a generous heart, child."

"Father, Reah has the generous heart. She could have skipped away from Kifirin at any time during the past twenty-five years, leaving them to struggle. She paid off a crushing debt to get them on their feet, and they rewarded her by taking her children and dumping more work on her shoulders. I don't even want to talk about my part in all of that. And I begged her, Father, to allow that bastard to attack her so we'd get the information we needed. And then, when all the power went down, we couldn't even get troops in there to help her. She was on her own until the very last, and took them down by herself. They kept attacking her, even when they knew it was useless to do so. Fired rockets at her. Bombarded her. She was pregnant, and they did that."

Lendill surprised himself with the wetness on his cheeks. "She kept all those girls safe, fighting to keep the army Nedrizif controlled from killing all of them. We haven't even paid her for that. How can we compensate for that, Dad? How? What we planned to pay her is paltry and an insult. Ildevar has promised half the confiscated funds from the pirates, but we're still working on getting all that put together."

"I understand that Torevik has promised half of the Schuul's holdings as well. Has he handed that over to her yet?"

"No. She's getting treatment by a doctor since she tried to kill herself. I'm not sure she's cooperating with him at all."

"Son, his nurses betrayed her. What can you expect? I watched that vid and wept. Imagine if you'd been in a session, claiming to be Vice-Director of the ASD and Prince-Heir of the Elves, talking about your torture at the hands of your brothers. Imagine what people might think if they saw it on that foolish program. You'd be ridiculed as well."

"I know." Lendill squared his shoulders uncomfortably, trying to shake off the images of Reah's exposure on Alliance vid programming.

"I am glad I did not witness the near-suicide," it was Kaldill's turn to shiver.

"I don't know what to do for her," Lendill went on. "She could reject all of us. That's the way things are looking right now. She hasn't come to any one of us. Asked us for anything."

"What do you think she might want, Son?"

"Probably for the past twenty-five years to not have happened."

"I need someone who will care for her. Not someone to feel jealousy or treat her badly or with indifference. And I don't know who that is," Kevis held his head in his hands as he sat in his father's study. Karzac sat behind his desk, located in the southeastern corner of the villa where he and his extended family of mates and co-mates lived. Kevis was Karzac's only son, born to Karzac and Grace, one of Karzac's three mates. Kevis wanted to find a nurse and assistant for Reah, but there weren't any candidates.

"What about Franklin?" Lissa appeared in Karzac's study, something she seldom did. "I wish I could get the old Franklin back. She'd trust him, I think, and he wouldn't appear threatening at all."

"I don't think we should mislead her, she's had too much of that," Kevis sighed. "Will Frank even consider it? We don't need someone who is only doing it because they feel sorry for her or obligated to any one of us for any reason. This person has to care about her and what happens to her. She needs a gentle touch from someone who isn't interested in sex. Someone neutral that she might come to trust."

"Let's take all the healers in while she's asleep, and see if any one of them feels a connection," Karzac suggested. "And if they don't, then we'll look elsewhere."

"Let's gather all of them and let them know what we're dealing with," Kevis agreed.

Chapter 5

"Belen has given permission to try this," Karzac announced to all the healers for the Saa Thalarr. "This is a delicate situation, as you might imagine. Reah is pregnant, a recent victim of an attack on Stellar Winds and an attempted suicide not long after that. Kevis is currently treating her, but he needs an assistant. Someone who might feel a bond with Reah in some way. We're going to take you to her while she's sleeping so we won't upset her. If you don't want to be a part of this, then you'll be excused. We want a healer who is willing to walk a few extra miles for someone who more than deserves the time and trouble."

"We'll go," Cleo spoke for all present.

"Then let's go," Karzac said. They folded to Campiaa.

"She's pregnant? She's so frail," Cleo said.

"Has she lost weight? She's very thin," Jeff remarked.

"There's no color in her cheeks," Norton pointed out. Nefrigar had come, making sure Reah was in a healing sleep before allowing any of the healers to touch her. Blankets were lifted back; ankles, feet, hands, heart and the recent bullet wound were examined. Nearly all of them placed their hands on Reah's belly, checking on the child. The child was healthy; Reah's health wasn't nearly as good.

"What problems are you encountering?" Franklin asked Kevis.

"She's defensive and argues with me at times. Not that she doesn't have cause," Kevis held up a hand.

"And she's a cook, too?"

"Probably the best I've ever seen."

"I think I'd like to try," Franklin said. "Anyone else interested?"

"I'd do it if nobody else wanted to," Norton volunteered.

"As would I," Joey said.

"Why don't all three of you move in?" Gavril walked in, finding his mother, Karzac and twelve other healers in Reah's room. "She might not agree to any one of you, so you'll have to be prepared for that."

"We're up to the challenge," Joey grinned. "Besides, maybe we can distract her with video games. I've got something new I'm working on."

"And Norton and I wouldn't mind help with our sauces," Franklin smiled. He and Norton both loved to cook.

"Fine. We'll throw all three of you at her. See how she reacts," Kevis huffed out a breath. "Let's hope this works, everybody."

"It'll be fun, I haven't stayed on Campiaa since Erland owned a casino there," Joey grinned.

"Re-ahhh," the voice was soft and coaxing, almost a whisper. "Re-ahhh, dinner time."

"Go away," I moaned, unwilling to open my eyes.

"But that little baby bump is hungry, too," the voice said.

"Who are you and how would you know?" I cracked an eye open, finding a blond man leaning over my bed, grinning at me. Granted he had a nice smile, but I had no idea who he was. And that was only the beginning. Two other men stood behind him, one dark-haired and quite handsome, who had his hand on the other's shoulder. The last one had brown hair, kind eyes and also smiled encouragingly.

"I'm Joey Showalter, healer for the Saa Thalarr," the one who woke me said. "And this is Franklin," he pointed to the dark-haired handsome one. "And this is one of my mates, Norton." He slipped an arm around the tall, brown-haired man. Joey was shorter than the other two and he was taking my hand, attempting to pull me off the bed.

"Healers for the Saa Thalarr? Do they have any left?" I quirked an eyebrow at all of them.

"They have a few," the one called Franklin assured me. "And we can always fold away if there's an emergency. Right now, we're here for you."

"That doesn't sound sufficient to warrant three healers," I grumped, sliding off the bed.

"But this is a vacation for us," Norton smiled. "So get that tiny butt of yours into some clothes and we'll go have dinner."

"Do you treat all your patients this way?" I asked, scooting around him to get to the closet.

"Only the ones with tiny butts," he laughed, following right behind me. "No, don't wear that," he pushed the brown blouse away. "This is good," he held up another. It was red. I didn't like wearing red and said so.

"But you'll look beautiful in this. It's a nice contrast to the color of your skin and hair."

"And these are too pale," Joey brushed a thumb over my right cheek. "We have to get some color back in those."

"See, you look great in that," Norton nodded when I came out of the bathroom later, fully dressed in the red blouse and gray slacks. "Shoes or just socks?" he asked.

"Socks are fine," I said, feeling overwhelmed. I couldn't recall being dressed by committee before.

"Come on, let's go see what's for dinner," Franklin grinned. We all trooped down the long hallway lined with bedrooms until we came to the dining area.

"This is an improvement," Teeg, Tory, Aurelius and Lok were there, sitting with all eight reptanoids and Doctor Halivar. Four spaces were left for us. I sat between Joey and Kevis Halivar.

"You don't have a problem with this?" I wiggled a finger at the three healers that had mysteriously shown up.

"Not at all," Kevis' mouth twitched a little, as if he were about to smile and then thought better of it.

"Hmmph," I sighed, looking up as a server set a glass of water and some fruit juice in front of me.

"I love pot roast," Joey smiled as a plate was set before him. I liked it, too, but it generally wasn't something people went to fine restaurants for. I made it for myself when I wasn't worried about cooking for others so much.