And then there were five For Amethyst Part 9 CHAPTER FIVE David's head was reeling. All these years of heartbreakingly slow progress, and now everything around him was advancing so fast that he could barely keep up. First, there was Jason. He'd sailed through the surgery, then sailed through initial recovery. Over the week he'd remained mostly bed-ridden, but Mark's somber determination to keep Jason up on his schoolwork turned out to be just the right motivation to ensure that Jason put every ounce of energy into physical therapy. After all, if he couldn't walk, he couldn't escape. Within the next week they should be able to increase the output on Jason's cerebonics, slowly turning them up and letting him adapt. Each successful step was priceless beyond words, especially since he'd finished evaluating the next candidate, and she was perfect. Odd, but perfect. He couldn't think of another way to describe a girl who insisted on such a strange name. She was born on Alpha-Three, the desert prison planet, and was the third generation product of interstellar smugglers and thieves. Her parents had stumbled onto dealings that chilled them to the core, so much so that they did the unthinkable among their people, contacting Intergalactic Security. David sighed. If only their warning had been taken seriously. Trying so hard to be heard, they tipped their hands, and her parents were among the first to vanish among thousands from Alpha-Three. Their four-year-old daughter -- Princess -- was found half-starved, days later, tucked into a hidden cache underneath their living room floor. All signs, of course, pointed to Spectra. With no other family claiming her, she'd been catalogued as an orphan and tested. Now she sat with Celia in the daycare as David sorted out what to do with her in the short term. They weren't implanting her until Jason recovered further, in case they learned anything that might ease the way for those who followed. At least he could be sure the girl wasn't a wilting little thing. There was no way she'd survived on Alpha-Three without a formidable inner strength. His phone rang, interrupting his train of thought. The moment he saw Paulson's name, he had a bad feeling, but there was no ignoring the man. Resigned, he picked up the phone. "Anderson here." "David," said Paulson in a suspiciously breezy tone, "so we now have a team of two point five?" David was glad that it was just an audio connection. He shook his head at the nudge, Paulson kept calling Mark the point five. "Yes, Sir. I was just working out her short term housing and care." "That's simple." The little hairs on the back of David's neck stood up. No, not again. "Your first team member won't be able to return to your apartment," Paulson reminded him, sounding slightly smug. "You have the space now. Just keep her with you." David pinched the bridge of his nose. "What am I going to do with a five-year-old girl?" "She'll be in a fighting unit," chuckled Paulson. "Deal with her the same way you do with the boys." Somehow, David imagined Isabelle scoffing at that suggestion. It would only be for a few weeks, though, or so he hoped. Then Princess would be implanted, and would join Jason living in the training complex. "Plus," said Paulson, "you'll be guiding these kids all the way through. Them staying with you, at least for a while, will help them attach to you so you won't be a stranger." Standard tactics. David was too tired to argue, especially when he knew it would do him no good. "Of course. I'll make the arrangements." "Keep up the good work." Paulson hung up. David could easily picture his boss cackling maniacally, the bastard. At least he could leave the shopping and initial settling in to Isabelle. He dialed Isabelle's cell to break the news. The boys should be doing schoolwork anyway, with Jason continuing physical therapy and Mark continuing his own physical training solo. Mark. How would he take this new child taking Jason's place? He sighed. This was going to be a long day. # David had far too much work to do, but Isabelle had insisted, and unfortunately, she was right. It was better if he brought Mark home and he introduced Mark to Princess, explaining the situation as best he could. Then hopefully he could turn around and get back to saving the Federation. Somehow, though, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. He reached the recovery room to find the boys sitting on Jason's bed together, both finishing off pudding cups. David made a mental note to remind the staff that Jason could accidentally hurt his not implanted friend. "Mark, it's time to go home." "Do I have to?" There were times David was sure, sure, that at nearly seven years old, Mark knew the devastating effect of those big blue eyes. Fortunately, throughout the years he'd been responsible for the boy, he'd learned to regard the sad puppy look from an emotional distance. "Yes, you have to. Come along." David turned, walking out the door. He didn't need eyes in the back of his head to know both boys were sharing frustrated looks, but he heard Mark's feet hit the floor, and paused long enough for him to put his shoes on before leading him from the building. He waited until they were outside before broaching the subject at hand. "We're going to have a guest for a few weeks." "Who?" Mark walked behind him with the unnatural, uneven stride of a child avoiding sidewalk cracks. "Her name is Princess. She'll be part of my project." "Princess?" Mark stared up at him a moment, eyes slightly narrowed in disbelief. He snickered, then looked down, gasping as he saw that his foot was on a crack. "She's five, she recently lost her parents." David kept his voice slightly stern, now. "She's far from her home planet and we're all strangers. I expect you to make her feel welcome." "Where's she staying?" Mark started to look up, then re-focused on the sidewalk. David hesitated just a moment. "She'll sleep in Jason's bed." As he'd expected, Mark stopped. "But where will Jason sleep?" Most of the time David didn't lie to Mark. This time, though, he made an exception. He found it best to drop one change on Mark at a time. "Jason's not ready to come home yet. The doctors say he needs more time." Technically, it was true. Technically. The boy beside him shuffled his feet in a sulk. "But I want him to come home now! What am I gonna do with some stupid girl?" David crouched and looked Mark in the eye. "I hope you won't talk to her that way, Mark. She'd been through a rough time, and she's only staying with us a few weeks. Since Jason doesn't need his bed, it only seems right to let her use it, doesn't it?" He waited until the boy grudgingly nodded, then stood and resumed walking. From the corner of his eye he made sure that Mark came along, his sidewalk game forgotten as he dragged his feet. The sulk continued as they reached their building, then in the elevator, and then when he opened the apartment door. That was, until the smell of chocolate chip cookies hit them in a full-on assault. "Cookies!" Mark ran for the kitchen. David followed more sedately, arriving just in time to see the small, raven-haired girl clinging to Isabelle's leg as she finished introducing the two children to one another. Unlike the first time David saw her, the child had put on weight, and was now dressed entirely in pink and white from head to toe. A single barrette adorned hair far too short to need one. When Mark stopped in the doorway to stare, Princess froze and stared back, her big green eyes looking a bit red along with her nose. Sniffling, she clung harder to Isabelle's leg. Mark looked up at Isabelle, then turned back to David. "I don't like her. I'm not sharing." He vanished in a flurry of running feet, a slamming bedroom door adding a certain finality to his proclamation. David watched in dismay. Knowing that Mark's reaction was probably more about Jason than Princess wasn't particularly helpful. "Can we still have cookies?" The little girl looked up at Isabelle with watery green eyes. Isabelle smiled and smoothed the child's hair. "Of course." Soon Princess was settled at the table with a glass of milk and more cookies than David thought was reasonable. Given the circumstances, though, he kept that thought to himself as he pondered new adventures in conflict resolution. Hopefully the meeting between Princess and Jason would go better. "Why don't I see if Mark's come around." Isabelle touched the girl's hair again and then left the room. David suddenly found himself the awkward recipient of pink-covered, green-eyed attention. Not knowing what to say, he fetched himself an illicit beer from his stash in the back of the fridge, then pried the cap free. "Who needs him anyway?" sniffled Princess, wiping her eyes. "He's mean." Again, David had no idea of how to respond. Did he tell the girl that she was taking his friend's bed? That seemed an unfair burden to give her. Yet, Mark had already squarely dropped it on her head. He was saved by Isabelle's return. Her smile this time looked more genuine. "We've come to an amicable agreement." From Princess's confused blink, David suspected Isabelle had just exceeded the girl's vocabulary. However, that was one of the things he liked about the woman. She never talked down to the children. An ominous thumping from the hall suddenly demanded David's attention. He caught a quirk to the corner of Isabelle's mouth, but went to investigate anyway. When he reached the hall, he found Mark hauling a stripped twin mattress from his room and down toward Isabelle's. "She can stay," said Mark, his chin set with the same stubborn determination that David associated with Jason. "But no stupid girl's sharing my room." Great, now he had two stubborn boys. David seemed to recall that Paulson had c