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Chapter One

Fall, Third Moon of the Military Government

"Let's run away."

Lucas laughed, but the sound caught in his throat as he looked up to see Kay'li braced in the open doorway of his office. He hadn't seen her since they met for breakfast and kisses just before dawn. Lately, that short, quiet time in the morning seemed like the only personal, private time they could get. Between his new duties as Lieutenant Governor and her duties as liaison between the Scouts and the colony, everyone wanted some of their time. Lucas speculated that he spent more time with Dini, preparing to adopt the little girl, than he did with the woman he planned to marry.

Kay'li had looked fine this morning, relaxed and rested and smiling. Her color had been good. He couldn't remember what they had for breakfast, but he remembered the taste and feel of every kiss and the clean scent of her damp hair.

Lucas wondered if the shadows of their hiding place in the courtyard garden hid the strain, and the shower she took on rising had washed away the bitterness in her scent. She looked frazzled now and he felt the tension radiating off her from six paces away. She wore her waist-length dark hair pulled back tight from her face, which only accentuated the shadows in her cheeks, the pallor of strain in her skin. Her knuckles were white from gripping the doorframe and gray shadows under her dark hazel eyes made them look sunken. A faint sourness from anger tinged her normally clean, warm scent.

"Run away," he echoed, and got up from his desk.

"You said we'd try to go to the Azuli canyon for our honeymoon." Kay'li dropped her voice as she finally came into the room. "Let's jettison everything and go. And not come back."

"Uh huh." Understanding crashed down on him. Lucas slapped the door control on his desk and reached for her. The panel slid closed. He scooped Kay'li up in his arms and settled down on the couch in front of the open windows with her on his lap. "That reeking cousin of yours?" He bit back a growl as he felt the rock- hard tension filling her body.

"It's not just Bain," she moaned.

"He still thinks he has the right to give you away - "

"I'm not his to give away. I'm a grown woman, not a shipping crate full of equipment!"

"And he's pressuring you to have the ceremony next week, before Daral and Elien can get here for the party. Who says we have to change our plans because his departure date got moved up?" Lucas guided her head down to rest on his shoulder and stroked up and down her back to soothe her.

We really have to get out of here, Lucas decided. He didn't know if it was the rarity of their private moments, or just the constant frustration that made each touch and kiss so poignant. Just as he had warned Kay'li so long ago, she reacted to his touch and he reacted to her reaction, in a tightening spiral. Their lack of privacy and freedom to touch helped stave off the explosion, but that tactic wouldn't hold forever.

"If the first Bain Kern was anything like this one, it's a miracle the Scouts turned out the way they are," Kay'li grumbled. "I have this vision of him declaring an emergency and dragging me off-planet, just so he can keep me in the Corps and keep ordering me around."

"Not a chance. Every Wildling on the planet will revolt. If he wants Wildling Scouts, he has to be nice to you."

"There's nice, and then there's his definition of nice. I can't wait until we're far away and totally alone."

"We're as alone as we're going to get for a while."

"That's true." Kay'li lifted her head off his shoulder and sat back enough to look in his eyes. "Does that door lock?"

"I have no idea." He laughed, and she laughed with him as she tangled her fingers in his collar-length hair and leaned down, slowly, until their lips met. The sound turned into a groan at the first jolt of sweet, warm contact. The feel of Kay'li in his arms and the taste of her made him more dizzy and breathless than an entire bucket of chikey wine.

Lucas thought about trying to lock his door. That would mean moving Kay'li off his lap. Using all their time for kissing was far more important. Besides, who would barge into his office without ringing and asking permission?

"I like this part," Kay'li whispered as she sat up more and adjusted her arms around his neck.

"From what I hear--" Kiss. "The rest is -" Kiss. "Pretty good, too."

She laughed, the sound breaking with a squeak when he kissed the ticklish spot at the hinge of her jaw. Lucas looked forward to discovering all her ticklish spots and making her squeak like that as often as possible. He felt a shift in the air, like his door had opened, but Kay'li's mouth, her scent, the warmth of her in his arms had all his attention.

"The sooner you two get married, the better," Nobi said, his voice thick with repressed laughter.

Lucas groaned and hid his face against Kay'li's neck. She laughed, the sound as sweet as her scent had become during their short reprieve.

"No, don't move on my account. Does my heart good to see you two acting like normal engaged folk." Nobi settled down on the edge of Lucas' desk. "Saw Kay'li stomping past my office and figured something was wrong. Glad you two worked it out."

"We haven't," she grumbled. "We just got...distracted."

"Distraction is a good tactical move." He winked. "What's the problem?"

They explained the continuing problem with Commander General Bain Kern trying to hijack their wedding festivities. Nobi growled a string of foreign words that Lucas suspected were particularly vicious curses.

"Only one solution." Nobi stood up and moved around to sit in Lucas' desk chair. "Elope. Run away." He shot them a frown when Kay'li muffled a burst of laughter. "Get out of here right now. There's nothing so important to the fate of the planet that you can't let it sit for a week or two. Maybe three."

"Three weeks?" Lucas blurted. A jolt of adrenaline and anticipation shot through him at the thought of being away from Port and Government House and enough paperwork to drown an entire outpost, for three weeks. Alone with Kay'li.

"Bain will track us down," Kay'li objected.

"Not if I overrule him. I'm the head of the government here, the last I heard. Unless he wants to file charges against me, there's not a thing he can do." Nobi's expression turned smug as he tapped commands into Lucas' computer.

"We can't just take off," she murmured.

"Yes, you can. I'll take care of Dini and explain to your friends. Three weeks ought to be enough time to plan a big bash to celebrate when you return." He nodded for emphasis. "And I know Daral will forgive you if you let him throw you a big bash out there at Safe Landing."

A flash of lightning made the three jump. Lucas groaned as he looked outside and saw the thickening gray storm clouds.

"What's wrong with that?" Nobi gestured at the sheets of rain that fell as if on his signal.

"Camping out in the rain isn't my idea of a honeymoon." Kay'li slid off Lucas' lap and moved over to stand in front of the desk, arms crossed, frowning down at Nobi.

"Do I have to do all your thinking for you?" Nobi leaned forward, elbows on the desk. "In the rain, no one can follow your trail or sneak up on you."

Lucas laughed, realizing that was a problem he hadn't considered. Between his more mischievous friends, men who wanted a chance to court Kay'li, and some prejudiced idiots who didn't want her to marry a Wildling, they would be fools not to expect some interference during their honeymoon.

"Guaranteed privacy," Nobi continued. "Just another excuse to keep each other warm. Do I have to teach you two everything?"

"What did my parents do, for their wedding?" Kay'li asked softly.

"Ian put up with the big society wedding to make nice with your grandmother. He was the most miserable man you ever could have seen, but for Miranda, he'd have done worse." Nobi nodded once for emphasis. "You're all set. Just sign the pad, and you're married. With the governor of the colony for witness, I might add. Can't make it any more official than that." He stood up and gestured for them to take his place at the computer.

Kay'li snatched up the stylus to sign the data pad. A faint flush of excitement painted her cheeks and her eyes sparkled when she finished. Lucas choked, then realized it was laughter trying to burst out. He signed his name and wrapped his arms tight around her.

"Hi, Mistress Aidan," Lucas whispered as he bent his head to kiss her.

"Hold on there," Nobi said, gesturing like he'd push them apart. "No kissing until you make your vows."

"We already did," Kay'li whispered. She raised her scarred thumb. "A long, long time ago."

"Forever and always. Together. Partners in everything," Lucas said, nodding. He twined his fingers with hers and pressed their thumbs together so the scars met. Their kiss sent a reverberation through him and filled the darkness behind his closed eyes with blue sparks, like Azuli eyes.

Later, when he told Kay'li about that moment, with the rain drumming against their tent, she laughed.

"They're letting you know they approve," she whispered, and snuggled closer in the warmth of their blankets.

* * *

Nobi sighed in satisfaction as he returned to his office and settled down in his desk chair. He picked up a picture cube and studied the image of Ian and Miranda, laughing, with two-year-old Kay'li asleep in her father's arms.

"She's all set," he whispered, hoping their spirits could hear him. "Just like you always wanted."

Three taps on the doorframe drew him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Seth Aidan come into the office. The two men grinned at each other.

"It worked?" Seth helped himself to the carafe of spyce before settling into the chair in front of the desk.

"Easier than we thought. Call Daral before he throws out his communication pack like he's been threatening, and tell him to start putting that party together." Nobi rubbed his hands in anticipation. "I get the honor of disappointing Cousin Bain."

"You're an evil man, Governor Cole."

"I just want those two to be happy."

"Then let's drink to a quiet life and that house they want out in the middle of the forest, lots of children and growing old together." Seth bowed his pale head over his cup, regrets darkening his eyes. Then he lifted it in salute to Nobi and drank deeply.

Chapter Two

Late winter. Two Chorillan years into the military government:

"You don't look so good." Alexa snorted and wiped a glob of mud off Kay'li's face. "Even taking all this into account."

"Thanks so much." Kay'li grimaced and peeled out of her muddy field suit.

Maybe it was cheating, to settle into the Leaper shuttle and drink coffee while her Wildling Scout trainees set up tents and dug shelters in a chilly spring downpour, but she didn't care. She had felt unbalanced and queasy for the last moon. If she didn't want so badly to get this phase of training over with, she would have called off the late winter maneuver altogether. Besides, Alexa had come down to say good-bye before leaving orbit. She couldn't just let her cousin go after making the effort to find her in the middle of an ice storm, could she? The sting in her breastbone from Alexa activating her tracking implant had faded, and Kay'li could almost laugh now at the start it gave her.

"I can't wait until summer and we can run away," she muttered as she wrapped up in warm, dry blankets.

"Wish I could go with you this year." Alexa handed her a towel for her hair and shoved the coffee carafe within reach. "No summer exploring for me, with your trainees to ferry around the galaxy." She grinned, making a lie of her aggrieved tone.

Kay'li grinned back and for a moment the cousins were mirror images, dark eyes and high cheekbones and long, dark hair. Sometimes she thought the summer of freedom to explore was the only thing that made bearable her continued service in the Scout Corps, and Lucas' overwhelming duties as lieutenant governor. Chorillan's government owned them, devouring huge chunks of their time from late fall to spring, but from late spring through the summer, their lives were their own.

"You really don't look good," Alexa said, her grin fading. "You've got me worried."

"I'm just tired." Kay'li warmed her hands with the mug of coffee and stretched out as much as she could manage in the unyielding seats of the shuttle's passenger compartment.

"I've seen you when you were just tired," she snapped. "You look like you did when those idiots poisoned you last year." Alexa inhaled sharply and reached out to grasp Kay'li's arm. "I'm sorry. That's the last thing you need to remember."

Kay'li managed a crooked smile and nodded acknowledgement of the apology. Her queasy sensation returned with the memory. The dose of poison had been light because she smelled something wrong with the spyce left in her office, but only after the first swallow. It was enough to make her sick for a week. Between Seth's underground organization and Brad's Peacers, the culprits were caught and charged within two weeks.

The guilty foursome were radical members of a group who insisted Wildlings were mutants, despite Dr. Habbab's evidence and a year of public education efforts. They were horrified that Kay'li had married a Wildling and had wanted to prevent her from 'producing half-breeds,' according to more than one confession.

"Alexa..." Kay'li put down the cup before she spilled the contents. That memory started a chain of thoughts that made her want to laugh and kick herself for being totally oblivious. And it terrified her. What if she was wrong? "Do you have a full- spectrum medic scanner here?"

"This is a field shuttle. You could perform surgery here, if you had to." Her cousin frowned slightly as she got up to pull out the medic kit from the locker on the far wall. "You think it really is something?"

"If it's what I think..." She bit her lip and refused to say anything more, tried not to even think about her speculation, until she had scanned and tested herself thoroughly.

Maybe even do it twice, just to be sure.

"Whatever it is, you'd think you'd be safe out here, surrounded by Wildlings and eating only natural food." Alexa watched Kay'li scan herself. "But then again, if you were poisoned at home, it could be something really sneaky. Maybe it needed time to build up in your system."

"Would you just--" She took a deep breath. "I need to concentrate. This is important."

"Sorry," Alexa muttered. She offered a weak little smile, and sat in perfect silence until Kay'li finished.

Kay'li stared at the screen, afraid to blink, afraid if she looked away, the codes would change and the results would be different. Finally, she took a deep breath, blinked and then rubbed her eyes with her fist to force back the tears that wanted to leak out. She swallowed hard and managed a tight smile as she raised her head to look at Alexa.

"I'm fine. Just a lot of stress. Some chemical changes. This time out here with my trainees ought to be good for me. Like you said, eating nothing but natural food. Lots of fresh air." She snorted and kicked at her sodden clothes. Putting them on again, half-dried, didn't seem so bad now that she knew what caused all the changes in her body. Her heart jolted. She couldn't be wrong. Please, Fi'in, she couldn't be wrong.

"Why don't I totally believe you?" her cousin murmured.

"I'm fine. I know what's happening, now."

"I ought to just kidnap you and drag you home. Lucas will listen to me, if you won't."

Kay'li muffled a giggle at the thought of Lucas' reaction when she told him what the scanner said. Her spirits plummeted. She was out here for four weeks with her Wildling Scout trainees. She didn't dare send a message back to him. No matter how she tried to hide the news with euphemisms, half the colony would know by nightfall.

She was pregnant. Nearly six weeks pregnant. She would be more than two moons along by the time she got home and could tell Lucas. Four weeks until she could tell him, and that meant she couldn't tell Alexa now. Not that Kay'li didn't trust her cousin to keep the secret, but Lucas had the right to know about their baby before anyone else.

They were going to have a baby.

She would give birth late in the fall, if she calculated things right. That seemed so far away.

Many things could go wrong in that time. Enemies could strike at her, to prevent her baby being born.

That thought sobered her, giving her the strength and calm to assure Alexa she was fine, and ask to borrow the scanner for the remainder of the training patrol. Kay'li breathed a sigh of relief when the shuttle lifted and Alexa flew back to her ship.

I'm pregnant. Kay'li hugged the thought to herself. She couldn't even whisper it, in case someone overheard.

In four weeks, she would be home and could tell Lucas. In four weeks, she would have time to think things through and come up with a strategy to hide the news and protect their baby. Much of the prejudice against Wildlings had died out in the two years since installing the military government, but enough remained to make her worry.

Besides, Kallin Riallon and his allies still hadn't been caught. That was reason enough to move with caution.

I'm going to have a baby, Kay'li reminded herself. She refused to let all the nastiness on the planet drive away her joy at that discovery.

And when she told Lucas...

Smiling, feeling warmer and more alive than she had felt in weeks, Kay'li headed for the camp her trainees had put together. She had work to do. Duty called. For now.

"Captain?" Trevor called, before the thought had finished going through her mind. "We found something." His face shifted between concerned and excited. "Lia noticed the water draining wrong, so we started digging. We think it's an underground shelter."

Two hours later, Kay'li called Nobi to report her trainees had found an abandoned Gen'gineer shelter. She estimated it had been abandoned before winter. There was no equipment, no files to access, no weapons. Charts on the walls showed someone had done genetic studies and kept track of the traffic through this area. Kay'li shuddered, thinking of Gen'gineers lying in wait, hoping to catch a Wildling to experiment on, maybe breed in their ongoing effort to create the perfect Human.

Long after the scientists and Peacers arrived to take over the investigation, Kay'li felt chilled, and it had nothing to do with the weather. She got her trainees moving, to put distance between them and the shelter.

It was too much to hope for, that Kallin Riallon and his Gen'gineer allies had succumbed to the severity of Chorillan's winters. No ships had broken the barrier of Scout patrol ships, to land in secret and carry them away. The colony's enemies still hid in the wilderness, waiting to rise up and attack, to seek revenge and take back their power.

Kay'li thought of what her uncle would try to do if he learned she was pregnant by a Wildling. Would Kallin settle for killing her, or would he help the Gen'gineers capture her, to experiment on her and her baby?

A flicker of movement, a hint of blue, caught her attention. Kay'li turned and gasped, the sound changing to laughter as Sky, the Azuli who adopted her, seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Sky looked long and deeply into Kay'li's eyes, then lowered his head and pressed his muzzled against her abdomen. She bent over, stroking down the Azuli's back.

He knows. It's all going to be okay. Kay'li closed her eyes and pressed her face into the thick, dusty-smelling fur, and felt knots all through her body loosen and fade away. The Azuli wouldn't let anything happen to her baby. Everything would be all right, no matter what happened.

Chapter Three

Four Weeks Later:

"It stinks bad here, Daddy," Dini grumbled as she followed Lucas from the private landing field behind Government House.

"I know." Lucas took a firm hold of his daughter's shoulder, to prevent Dini from running away on a spur-of-the-moment exploring trip. At six Chorillan years of age, almost nine Standard, the golden-haired girl was still tiny for her age, and that just made it harder to catch her once she got away. He exchanged grins with the gray-uniformed Scout corporal escorting them. The young woman rolled her eyes and shrugged.

Port actually smelled better than it had only two years ago, when the colony struggled to make up for its export imbalance by developing industry, and factories belched smoke into the air from antiquated machinery. Lucas couldn't convince Dini of that, because she had never come near Port until military rule had been installed. His daughter had grown up in the clear, clean air of Emers Outpost.

The thrill of a shuttle ride couldn't mask the stink of machinery, plastics and the fumes that came from power plants, the spaceport and thousands of people living in close proximity. Emers, the Wildling center of the government, still held its rustic feeling and sense of openness.

At the gate in the security wall around the field, the Scouts on duty nodded and waved them through. Dini's disgruntled look changed to a smug grin. Being Lieutenant Governor meant Lucas could walk through security with no more than a few minutes of delay. Time was of the essence, today. Lucas had meant to bring Dini to visit Nobi Cole and stay with Seth Aidan's family yesterday, but a few minor emergencies had delayed him. As usual.

Today, however, Kay'li was headed home from field training. That was more than enough to make Lucas grin as he and Dini trudged up the stairs to the front face of Government House. He had taken a whole week off from his duties at Emers, and Dini would be busy with the Aidan clan in Port. He and Kay'li could go anywhere, do anything without fear of interruption from his duties, their daughter or her trainees. They could even lock the door of their house and sleep the day away, if they wanted.

Kay'li had been tired before she left on this training exercise, and Lucas knew she would push herself to lead her trainees by example, not just word. She would need the time to recover. Memories of her mother fading away in weariness had haunted his dreams while Kay'li was gone. Lucas said many silent prayers, trying to convince himself that Kay'li hadn't inherited the degenerative disease that had killed her mother.

"Lucas, Dini?" Seth Aidan hurried down the stairs from the fountain level. The bright afternoon sunshine gleamed on his perspiring forehead, bright on his white hair, painting dark spots on the back and armpits of his charcoal-gray shirt.

The escort and Seth exchanged a glance that had more meaning than Lucas could read in half a second.

"Something going on I should know about?" he asked the Scout in an undertone.

"Rumors," was all the corporal would say.

Seth scooped up Dini and hugged her. "Look at you! You're not a little girl anymore." He pretended she was too heavy as he put her down, earning giggles from her. "How is everything?" he said, clasping Lucas' shoulder in greeting.

"Fine. Kay'li's due back this afternoon. Raina offered, so I decided to bring Dini up for a treat, to stay with you." Lucas studied his father's face, looking for answers.

"Treat for whom?" Seth winked. "I remember a few times Ian and Miranda took you in, to give your mother and me some privacy. We ended up with Sam, one of those times." He chuckled.

"Mama wants babies," Dini announced.

"She's growing up too fast." Seth nodded and slowed his pace so Dini and their escort moved ahead of them. "We've been catching rumors. The usual hate talk, blaming you for the changes. And blaming me." He exhaled loudly. "Someone tried to take Derek from school yesterday."

"Is he all right?" Lucas hadn't seen Sam's oldest son, Dini's age, since last fall. The thought of an innocent child being hurt because of his blood relations made Lucas sick.

"Fine. Thought it was all a great adventure. But...We've heard hints of threats against Dini, to get to you."

"Taking her home--" Lucas began.

"Would only play into their hands. This trip wasn't planned, was it?"

"Nobi knows. And Raina. But it was all pretty spur-of-the-moment." He didn't know what he felt, only that he had an aching urge to snatch up Dini and carry her back to Emers, where every Wildling could help protect the child. But his father had just said taking Dini back would play into the enemy's hands.

"Good. My people are doubling their efforts to try to track the rumors to the truth, but it's hard."

"If anybody can do it, they can." Lucas grinned and his father shrugged and glanced away. Seth's organization supporting Wildlings had been so secret, the Wildlings hadn't even known they had friends in Port. It was an uneasy joke between father and son, rarely mentioned.

They reached the top level of the plaza outside Government House. The traffic was sparse, despite the fine summer weather. Scout magistrates handled most of the official work at each outpost, sending only the larger problems to Governor Cole. When the Scouts established the military government, they eliminated three- quarters of the bureaucracy. The savings in salaries and expense accounts alone had helped reduce Chorillan's colonizing debt by five percent in just two years.

Lucas usually liked the empty, quiet feeling of Government House. Today, the lack of people, the openness, the echoes as the four crossed the tiled plaza made him feel exposed. Someone could shoot at him or his daughter or his father from dozens of hiding places around the fountains and up in the multiple rooflines of the sprawling building.

Dini let out a shriek and ran for the gold-tinted doors as they swung open. Nobi Cole hurried out, flanked by his Scout bodyguard. The white-haired governor of Chorillan laughed and dropped to his knees to hug the girl.

"Well, this is one big happy family reunion," Nobi said, staying on his knees. "Glad to see you, Seth. Your name was on my list of people to call today."

He knows. Lucas felt disgust that everyone on Chorillan seemed to know the threat against his daughter except him.

And Kay'li. She wouldn't have willingly gone on the training exercise if she knew Dini was threatened.

Their summer trip out into the wilderness and the protection of the Azuli couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

No one home. Kay'li stood a long time in the doorway and listened to the breeze move through the empty house.

Her legs ached and her head felt light. Sweat had dried inside her jumpsuit, pasting it against her skin in a sticky, scratchy mess she had to shed immediately or scream. She had been hungry since an hour after lunch and couldn't eat all the long shuttle flight back to Emers because she felt airsick.

That had never happened before.

No one was home. The last four times she had come back from training missions, Dini had tried to climb into the shuttle to be with her before the hatch opened. Lucas always met her with flowers or something else to keep their hands busy so they wouldn't cling to each other until they were breathless with kisses, right there on the landing field in front of everyone.

Today, however, she had walked all the way to their home above the river and saw absolutely no one. It was like Emers had evacuated, and nobody told her.

Kay'li lifted her backpack from the floor, half-minded to fling it across the front room and hit the opposite wall. Her arms rebelled with a dull ache that begged for a long, hot shower and longer massage. But Lucas wasn't around to oblige.

She dragged her backpack down the hall to her bedroom and left it lying by the door. Her jumpsuit, boots, underwear and tool wristband made a trail from the doorway into the bathroom. She stopped short and stared in dismay at the sight on the wall.

Lucas had installed the new mirror over the washbasin. Kay'li stared at her reflection and all the weariness of the last four weeks crashed down on her shoulders. Pale under her tan, dark smears under her eyes, lips pressed thin with achy weariness, hair hanging long and limp with grit and sweat. Not a nice homecoming picture.

It struck Kay'li that she looked too much like her mother, during Miranda's last decline.

"No." She turned from the mirror, stepped into the shower and tugged the waterproof curtain closed. "I'm not sick. I won't die." She hit the dial for the water and gasped when cold sluiced over her head. "I'm just dead tired, that's all."

However, the shower eased the ache in her muscles and refreshed her enough she knew she wouldn't sleep right away. If Lucas were here, he'd insist she spend the rest of the afternoon in the sweathouse, purging the fatigue toxins from her body.

"That's out." Her lips curved up at the thought of the medical reason why she had to avoid the sweathouse.

That didn't preclude a swim in the river and a long nap in the sun in the shallows.

She ransacked the kitchen to make a picnic. Now that she was on solid ground again, her stomach clamored for attention. Kay'li sighed, then grinned despite her frustration. Her stomach was going to be a major consideration for the next six moons. In more ways than one.

She found vrilly, already free of their shells. Cold, roasted hopper, sliced thin. Piles of cheese and shredded, pickled bitterroot. Enough cookies to indicate Dini had been making a pest of herself with her multitude of adopted aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Not that Kay'li minded if her daughter brought home enough treats to feed a small army. She liked sweets and didn't have nearly enough time for baking.

"I will soon," she muttered, as she slapped together two sandwiches and filled a sack with enough fruit and cookies for four people. Kay'li searched the coldbox one last time, in case Lucas had stocked up on anything special while she was away. She found a covered platter of silverdeer steaks, seasoned with pepperwood sticks. Only two steaks. He knew she was coming home today, so what was Dini going to do while her parents had their special dinner?

Logic said Lucas was away making arrangements for Dini. Kay'li smiled and tried to figure out just what he had planned for her first evening home, while she walked the slope down to the river shallows.

They had built their house set away from the outpost, leaving plenty of room for growth, to preserve their privacy for as many years as possible. For now, this particular section of the river shallows belonged just to their family. Wearing her briefs and a loose, sleeveless shirt that went to her knees, she waded out to the sandbar where Lucas had built a submerged wooden chair for sunbathing and sleeping in the shallows.

Kay'li ate half of what she brought with her. Grinning at her growing appetite, she hung the leftovers from a tree limb to be safe from scavenging animals. Then she settled in the double-wide chair and closed her eyes. She imagined the gentle current washing away her fatigue and worries.

She never quite fell completely asleep. Kay'li heard the songs of birds, the gurgle of the water across the pebbles at the bend in the river ten meters down, the whisper of the wind through the tall grasses on the bank. She heard the soft scrape of footsteps, but couldn't rouse herself enough to look.

"Kay'li?" Lucas' voice came from the bank.

"Hi." It seemed to take forever to get her eyes open. When she could focus, Lucas was already in the water, wading out to join her, peeled down to his briefs.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" He lifted her so he could slide into the chair under her. Kay'li rested against his chest with his legs around her hips.

"Not by myself, in case you haven't noticed."

That earned her a growl and a teasing nip on her earlobe. She was too relaxed and drowsy to even pretend to be startled. Sighing in contentment, she wrapped his arms around her waist and wriggled until his chin rested on her shoulder and she could feel the pulse in his throat against her neck. They could lie like this for hours, no need for talking.

"Missed you," he whispered, his voice muffled by light kisses brushed up her neck.

"Missed you more." Kay'li tried to turn, to get a proper welcome home kiss. Lucas growled deeper and tightened his arms so she couldn't move. She laughed sleepily. "Beast."

"Go back to sleep."

"Got plenty. Now I need kissing."

"You haven't had nearly enough sleep."

Kay'li sighed, hearing the worry in his voice. "I'm fine."

"You wore yourself down to nothing again, didn't you? I told Arin--"

"And Taran and Aureen and I lost count of how many others." With a wrench, she twisted free of his arms and turned to face him, kneeling between his legs with her arms braced on his shoulders. "How are they going to learn how to be Scouts if they spend all their time nursemaiding their teacher? Lucas!" She laughed when he lunged forward to kiss the tip of her nose.

"That's what Scouts are supposed to do. Take care of people. Besides, what's the use of being lieutenant governor if I can't throw my weight around a little?" He slid his arms around her and drew her down against him. She moaned as their lips met. "That didn't sound right," he said, ending their kiss far too quickly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm too old to spend the half the night walking in the rain and the other half trying to sleep on rocks."

"Lay out in the sand. Kay'li." He gave an exasperated sigh when she tucked her head under his chin and settled down for snuggling. "I'm going to rub your back."

"I like it better when you rub my back this way." Kay'li managed not to snort laughter. "I missed you so much--and not just because I miss my big, warm pillow, either."

"Missed you, too." He slowly stroked his hands up and down her back, seeking out the tight muscle bundles and pressing until they warmed and loosened.

"Then why weren't you at the landing field to meet me?"

"First, you got home an hour earlier than you said."

"We had a good tail wind coming home."

"And I was in Port, leaving Dini with Nobi and my folks for a long visit."

"Dini's in Port?" Kay'li propped herself up on one elbow against his chest so she could see him. "We're all alone?"

"All alone."

"How long?"

"Not long enough."

"Lucas..." Her face felt hot enough to heat spyce.

"It's going to take a week just to get you recuperated from that trip." He reached up and cupped her cheek, his gaze flickering over her features. "Sweetheart, you look like you haven't eaten or slept right in moons."

"I'm just tired, that's all. One good night's sleep next to you, in my own bed, and I'll be fine."

"Uh huh. I don't like how you come home so tired from training. I think you should take the rest of the year off."

"That should be just about right."

"I'm serious. I'll call Nobi and tell him to take you off active duty for an entire year, if I have to."

"Don't worry, I've already applied for medical leave. I just want to talk with Linnell--"

"Medical leave?" He gripped her arms. "What's wrong?"

A breathless laugh escaped her, despite the painful tightening of his hands on her arms, just above her elbows. "Lucas, please, I'm fine. Just tired."

"That's what your mother always used to say, when she sent us home from school early."

"I'm not my mother." Kay'li swallowed hard, fighting the icy fear that flowed up from her chest into her throat, stealing her breath and choking her. She was fine, she reminded herself. She had her medical diagnostic scanner results to verify it. The cold went away, replaced by that warm, gentle sense of euphoria that had followed her through most of the training exercise. "There's a perfectly valid explanation for all this."

"Tell me, then."

"You really haven't given me a chance." She knew she was being cruel, but a tiny part of her gloated over his worry, wanted to tease him a little, wanted to see the surprise last a long, beautiful moment when she told him.

"Tell me." He shook her.

"I'll be perfectly fine in about six more moons."

"Kay'li..."

"Then it'll be your turn to be dead tired."

"If you don't tell me--"

"I'm pregnant, that's all."

"That's all?" he whispered, voice cracking. For five long seconds he stared at her, eyes wide, mouth gaping, his painful worry for her crackling and turning into incredulous joy sparkling in his eyes.

Lucas whooped and pulled her tight against him, laughing as he kissed her hard, repeatedly, until they slid down in the chair and landed on their knees, in water nearly to their necks. Sputtering and giggling like children, they struggled to their feet, still clinging to each other. Standing on the sandbar, he tangled his hands in her hair, holding her still while he smothered her with kisses. Kay'li wrapped her arms tight around him until her joints and his ribs were threatened. Only then did she feel the aching, hungry longing of the past weeks begin to ease away.

"We're having a baby," Lucas whispered. A hoarse, breathless laugh escaped him. "How long have you known?"

"Just after I left. Alexa came to say good-bye and she nagged until I scanned myself."

"But you didn't bother--no." He kissed her in apology. "You couldn't tell me, could you, without the entire planet overhearing?"

"I wanted to see your face when I told you, anyway." She sighed and tucked her head down against his shoulder. "I think we should spend this whole week alone just celebrating."

"The whole week..." He groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I just outsmarted myself."

Kay'li raised her head to see sunset spilling gold and pink across the water. She shivered in anticipation of the dropping temperatures. "Outsmarted yourself how?" She wondered if the shock of her news had knocked him senseless.

"We're having a baby." A gusting sigh escaped him. "Have to admit, I was getting a little worried. Maybe someone got to me without Cam knowing, when they brought me back."

"You think someone sterilized you? One medical scan would have revealed that little problem." She wove her fingers into his hair, ending the caress with a soft yank that earned a chuckle from him. "You should have told me."

"How, without sounding like an idiot? And how do we explain this to Dini?"

"She learned about reproduction in her lessons more than a year ago."

"Well...I got her to go visit Nobi and my folks by explaining that we needed time alone to work on making a brother or sister for her. How do we explain that we didn't need the time alone now?"

"Who says we have to explain?" She bit her lip against laughing.

"She can count--doesn't even need to use her fingers anymore."

"Unlike you, at her age."

"I should have left you sleeping, Mistress Aidan." Lucas gently yanked on a handful of her hair.

"You can't leave anything alone." Something caught at her heart, stole the breath from her lungs for a moment. "That's why I love you so much."

"Love you, Kay'li," he whispered, and bent to gather her up in his arms. He started to wade back to the bank. "We're having a baby."

She heard the wonder and joy in his voice, and the touch of fear.

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