"Dest your presence is required inside now," Kadance commands.
"Yes, ma'am," Dest responds stretching as he walks through the doors.
"Kadance tells me you're taking responsibility for my injuries," Tommy accuses Dest as he enters.
Dest in surprise stops short. He smiles broadly, "You're awake!"
"Yes, I'm awake. Do you take responsibility for my injuries?" Tommy says irritably.
Cautious now Dest replies, "Yes, sir. I believe it was my poppers that caused your internal injuries."
"It wasn't." Tommy says as he moves position. "At least not fully. I was too close to too many bangs. Should have stayed put when my ribs started hurting. It was my fault for not staying put." Tommy gives up in disgust. Kadance comes over and helps lift Tommy up, then places pillows behind him for support. "I was too happy to be ghosting again and didn't want to listen. I wasn't ready to continue my ghosting duties." Tommy says slightly out of breath. "Broke the ribs, ignored what I was told." Tommy closes his eyes for a minute. Then he stares at Dest. "I don't allow anyone to take responsibility for my actions. Do I make myself clear?" Tommy barks out.
"Yes, sir!" Dest replies.
"Good. Now how about getting Meran down here with her magical food. They tell me I haven't eaten in days and I'm starving. And so are these two even if they won't say anything," Tommy says in dismissal.
"Right," Dest says and leaves quickly.
"Kadance where are my toys?" Tommy asks plaintively.
"Nearby, but you can't have them until you can walk to them," Kadance says smugly. Tommy looks at her in horror.
"Not nice love. Tommy feels naked without his weapons," Jayse chides.
Kadance smiles, "Tommy is naked and he'll stay that way until he can walk to the shower, walk back and get dressed. He has less than three days to get moving." She turns from facing a stunned Tommy to giving Jayse a hard look. "And I don't want you slipping him any toys, Jayse," Kadance orders. "Or I'll have you stripped searched and confiscate your toys as well. Keep you both in here naked," She smiles wickedly. "Hmm, that's not a bad idea. Eye candy, that's what you both are. Delicious."
Tommy is outraged enough to try to get out of bed. Jayse refuses to move. "Not nice Kadance. My control isn't very good right now," Jayse says in a strained voice.
Tommy pauses panting, legs on the side, "You did that deliberately," he accuses.
"Of course. It worked didn't it?" Kadance says offhandedly.
"Oh my," Maren says wide eyed. She almost drops the food as she sees Tommy in his altogether.
"Kadance, get her out of here," Jayse orders through gritted teeth. That pulls Meran's attention to Jayse.
"Kadance now, please," Tommy pleads.
Kadance takes the food from Meran's hands and escorts her out. "Thank you for the food. I'll make sure they're dressed next time. Sorry about that."
"I'm not." Meran blushes, "No, I shouldn't have said that. Sorry. And I should have more control, I know they're off limits, but oh my heavens they're perfection."
Kadance is torn between amusement and smugness. "Yes, I know," smug wins.
"You're looking better now, Jayse." Kadance says as they finish eating. "Better than you have in days. After you shower and shave you won't look like a pirate anymore. You'll be back to my knight protector."
Tommy pipes up, "Amazing what a few hours of sleep and a good meal will do for someone that's refused both for four days."
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Jayse rejoins. "You look much better at least you're no longer as white as the sheets. If it weren't for your dark hair you'd have faded into the sheets themselves."
Tommy sighs, "I know, it's the bane of my existence to always fade into the background."
Kadance chokes on her final bite of food. When she's almost done coughing and gasping she glares at Tommy. "Not anymore. You're grounded from ghosting except in teaching and non combative situations."
That's enough to get Tommy to push the tray away from him violently enough it crashes to the floor. Fortunately nothing breaks and the food was mostly eaten. His anger gives him enough strength to get out of the bed and stand, but not enough to walk to Kadance. "You can't do that Kadance, it's who I am."
Kadance glares at him, "I can and have. Light duty and teaching only Tommy. After we get to Gaia I'll take another look and see if you're up to ghosting during combat. But don't get me wrong Tommy," Kadance stands up after shoving her tray and goes over to Tommy. She pokes him in the chest, "You push me on this Taren Thompson and I swear I'll ground you from all ghosting and ordnance. I'll permanently take away your toys that go boom! Do you understand me?"
"I'm just going to slip back to our room, shower, shave, and put on clean clothes. I'll leave Dest on 'til I come back," Jayse says wrapping the blanket around him and leaving quickly.
Tommy stands there glaring at Kadance. His jaw muscles tightly clenched. Kadance stares him down. She just raises an eyebrow. Finally Tommy gets out through tightly gritted teeth, "Yes, Ma'am."
Kadance feels like she's just been slapped. To hide the tears she goes over and starts to pick up the tray and dishes, but she can't stop the sobs. She just sets everything on the tray and leaves it on the floor. Then she goes to the shower room.
"Kadance, stop," Tommy pleads. "I'm sorry Stefi."
Kadance nods but continues to the shower room.
Tommy can only watch in frustration as she goes into the shower room. He doesn't even dare bend over to pick up his tray. Unhappily he gets back into the bed.
Kelan enters and takes a look around. "I see Jayse was right. You didn't take well to my orders." She picks up the tray from the floor and sets it on a flat surface. Then she looks at Tommy.
"She was just delivering my orders. Jayse says she didn't do it the most diplomatic way. I can see you didn't take it well. Let me explain a few things to you Tommy. Since you became deathly ill we had to force Kadance to eat. She would but only two or three bites before she'd push it away. I had to threaten her and she'd drink the broth. She'd sleep fitfully, mostly sleep of exhaustion caused by the pregnancy. You already know about Jayse. Kadance is near a danger point right now. She needs rest and food. It's affected the whole team, Tommy. They've all been on edge. Jayse has been so distracted he's giving contradictory orders then getting upset at them not being done."
"General Rueton, " she continues, "is terrified that he's going to hear you died. He's spent almost as much time here as Kadance, carefully timing it so he avoided her. Alpha and Compound Commands have both been worried about you. Jade and Jax have been pests underfoot anytime they're free." Here she shakes she snorts, "Meran lost control this morning because of all the stress."
She comes over to his bedside, "If Kadance lost you she'd be in no shape to stop Jayse. He's too emotionally tied to you both, to lose either. Should he lose either of you Jayse would go over and he'd take us all with him. And I don't think Kadance would try to stop him. We all know that. We've all been on edge.
"But more than that, you're a main part of our team. We'd miss you. You keep us laughing at life. We need that as much as your toys.
"I've grounded you from ghosting in an effort to keep you alive. There was severe damage done internally. You're refusal to wake up has been both good and bad. Good for the body, giving it time to heal, but bad because your systems were depressed and you weren't healing as well as you should have. You're well enough to start your physio, but not well enough to go ghosting. No ghosting period until we get to Luna Two and then it will depend a lot on your physical progress. Don't shut out Kadance or Jayse, you are just as emotionally tied to them as they are to you. I've never seen a double bond last this long. I think it's only working due to that bond you have with Jayse. It makes life tense at times, but other times it can be useful. Use it to help you now." This lecture is given as she examines Tommy.
"I'll send some non combat clothes in with Jayse. Meran is right, you are perfection. You'll be a problem with the female staff if I left you as you are. I've located someone on Luna Two that can fix that hand. We're lifting off in a week, sorry it will take so long to fix."
"I'll be fine. I've worked around that before I still have the use of the rest and at least it doesn't hurt," Tommy says.
"Kadance went to the shower room. Will you check on her for me? She was pretty upset and that's my fault, I'd go myself but right now I feel as weak as a newborn kitten." Tommy asks laying back down and closing his eyes. He doesn't see the look Kelan gives him but can imagine it.
"I've already apologized. I just about fell over trying to get to her. Please Kelan?" Tommy pleads.
"Physio will be here in an hour," Kelan says in warning.
"I'll be here. I'll start the scamps on some studies if you'll send them into see me about an hour after physio," Tommy says.
"Just as long as it's only homework. You won't be cleared for anything else until you're up and walking around," Kelan warns and Tommy weakly waves in acknowledgement.
Kelan walks over to the shower room and knocks quietly. Kadance opens the door and talks softly with Kelan. Kelan puts her arm around her and walks her to the door. They leave as Tommy slips into sleep.
Housekeeping is just finishing up when Jayse comes back with clothes for Tommy. "Hey sleepyhead, time to wake up. I've orders to help you get dressed before physio arrives. It's supposed to keep you out of trouble somehow."
"Apparently the physio staff is all female. Kelan thinks my altogether would be more than they can handle." Tommy says sleepily. "It seems we, you and me, are 'perfection'." Tommy snorts and Jayse joins in.
"Well, better get dressed then, can't have the physio's swooning around you," Jayse laughs.
Tommy says wryly, "Yeah, wouldn't Kadance love that. I'm already in trouble with her." Tommy dresses as quickly as he can which isn't very fast, "This is work in itself." He says as he finishes up and lays back panting.
"Boy do you have a long way to go." A strange female says. "I'm Sandlee, your physio. At least until you leave. I'm supposed to have you back up and walking at least with in three days," She sounds doubtful about that.
"I'll do it, I have to Boss Lady said," Tommy pants out. Jayse gives him a hand up.
"Speaking of which, I gotta get back to her. I'll send the twins to you in a couple of hours," Jayse says.
"I'll be here," Tommy replies grimly.
" We'll do mostly assessment now. Later today we'll try to do more. Another real meal will do you a world of good." Sandlee says pulling out a walker. "I want you to use this. At least at first. Once you're steadier we'll try it without." She says as she sees the dirty look Tommy was giving the walker.
"I know it's insulting for a healthy warrior, but the sooner you're steady the sooner we can get rid of it," Sandlee says patiently.
Tommy grunts then pushes himself off the bed. He ignore the physio's out held hand. Standing straight he takes a deep breath. Feeling the weakness of his legs he grabs the walker cussing himself for his weakness. He takes a few steps, small baby steps before he has to stop and rest.
"Good, very good. Now come on back," Sandlee urges. "We'll take that as done for now. You're stubborn, they told me you would be. You just might be stubborn enough to make your goal. Later after dinner we'll give it another go."