AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sazahk touched the back of Garin’s hand. Warm. His skin was as warm as it should be, and deep brown flushed up Sazahk’s fingertips. Affection pressed against the inside of his ribcage, reminding him of the resolution he’d made when he started this vigil at Garin’s bedside hours ago.
He would tell Garin how he felt.
They should have had the conversation the week before, when they were trekking through the Dead Zone every day and spending every night in each other’s arms. Sazahk should have told Garin every hour how much he fascinated, comforted, and aroused him. Instead, he’d pushed him away.
Sazahk had feared his feelings were a trap. Now he realized the trap had been his own fear.
Garin should have still gone after Dom. Sazahk slipped his fingers into Garin’s palm and squeezed his hand. But he should have gone knowing how Sazahk felt about him.
And maybe now that Dom was strictly under the protection of the Insects, for better or for worse, Garin wouldn’t ever have to go risk his life ever again.
Or at least, not seriously risk it.
Patrick had cleared the resourcing with the Klah’Eel branch of the sector-wide Insect task force to create another position within their squad. The role was specifically to protect Sazahk as he continued his research in the Dead Zone and conducted joint projects with the Insect settlement being established at the heart of it.
And the role was Garin’s, if he wanted it. Sazahk brushed his thumb along Garin’s skin and trailed his eyes up from Garin’s chest to his face, smooth in the peacefulness of sleep. The compensation wasn’t anything compared to what the Turners had paid him, but he wouldn’t be surrounded by violence all the time and…he’d be with Sazahk.
That had to count for something. Sazahk swallowed. He hoped it counted for something. He wasn’t sure beyond all reasonable doubt that Garin even had an interest in a relationship with him or if the nature of that relationship would align with the nature of the relationship Sazahk was interested in.
He was only sure that he had to try.
He just needed Garin to wake up first.
“Oh, you must be a friend.”
Sazahk snatched his hand out of Garin’s when an older human woman opened the door. The woman’s green eyes widened at the movement.
“Or more than a friend?”
“A colleague.” Sazahk stood quickly, his uncomfortable shyness intensifying when a younger woman he recognized pushed into the room after the older one. “You’re Beaty Garin.” Beaty stopped at the sight of him as the older woman had. The older woman who Sazahk suddenly realized could only be one person. “And you’re Garin’s mother.”
“Margaret Garin, but you can call me Maggie.” The woman’s lips quirked into a smile so like her son’s, it erased any doubts as to her identity. She held out her hand. “And you are…?”
“Sazahk.” Sazahk almost didn’t take the proffered limb. He’d never liked or understood the Human custom. But then he remembered that this was Garin’s mother, one of the most important people in the galaxy to the man, and he hurried to correct himself, shaking the woman’s hand, maybe a bit too forcefully. “I worked briefly with Garin recently, or at least he was assigned to work with me, or rather, he was assigned to ensure I survived my journey, which I did as he’s extremely capable at what he does, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
Margaret and Beaty’s eyebrows rose as Sazahk sputtered through too many words with too many details and he snapped his lips shut.
“But you’re here to see him, of course.” Sazahk stepped away from his post at Garin’s side and gestured for them to take his place. “He’s stable, but he hasn’t woken, which is to be expected given the medications administered to keep him unconscious to aid in the healing process, but they’ve discontinued those, so he should wake soon.”
“Thank you.” Margaret gave him a warm smile and Sazahk jumped when she squeezed his forearm, then she and Beaty both clustered at Garin’s bed, Beaty picking up the hand Sazahk had dropped.
Sazahk drifted into a far corner, giving the family space.
He bit his lip as a familiar pain oozed through the grooves of his psyche. He hadn’t felt it so acutely in a long time. He’d deliberately oriented himself in his surroundings and in his relationships to avoid ever feeling it again after its omnipresence during his childhood and young adult life.
Isolation.
The agonizing certainty that he didn’t belong.
After a few minutes, the door banged open and two identical young men tramped in, one balancing four paper cups of steaming liquid and the other boxes of snacks from the cafeteria.
“You got to hand it to the Qesh. Their stations are way better than the Human ones.” The first man unloaded his precarious burden onto the table beside Garin’s head. “They even had coffee.”
“Weird food choices, but this stuff looked good.” The second man piled his boxes up next to the cups, then grabbed one and started opening it as he turned around. “I think it—oh! Hello.”
He stopped dead when he caught sight of Sazahk in the corner.
The first man spun around at his brother’s exclamation. “Oh, shit, hi, I didn’t see you there.”
