Arlytian Terms
*Third Meal
- the evening meal, supper
*Commoner
Tree - a native Arlytian tree which has a unique green tint to its
bark. It is fast growing and with a hard wood, so is very popular in
construction and other uses.
*Mieli
(pronounced Mee-ay-lee) - A word from an ancient Arlytian dialect that
means "Greatly loved one". Mieli is masculine and Miela
is feminine. It is considered a precious word and is usually used as an
endearment between marrieds.
*****
Chapter
6
Upon leaving Charge Seren’s quarters,
Cayson took a few steps toward the Agriculture Unit, where he was most likely
to find Ozias. However, he quickly
changed his mind and his direction. It
was still a working day. Oz would be
occupied and Cay knew his own time was better suited at the Med Unit. Currently there were no overnight patients,
but he needed to do an inventory of all supplies before the shipwide exodus
would occur. Depending on what Seren’s
team would find on their mission, that might be sooner rather than later.
Getting to his unit and isolating himself
in the stock room, he routinely counted and recorded supplies while thinking
both about how he needed to apologize to Oz, as well as considering who among
the medical crew would be a wise choice for Seren to take on the expedition.
He hadn’t come to a promising decision on
much of anything by the time the inventory was done, and he was tempted to find
other work to linger for a while. There
were always productive activities to be done in medicine, but it was
approaching third meal and he knew
that Oz and Amrynn would be wondering about him if he was later than expected.
Actually, he had to speculate if Am would
notice. She’d been so caught up in her
own research that most everything else had taken a back seat. Cay was fairly certain that even now, if Oz
hadn’t already gotten her, she’d be in her zone studying, testing and recording
data from Neveah’s samples. Deciding to
delay talking to Oz a little longer, he headed toward the Purifier ward to see
if Amrynn was there and ready to go.
Those plans were dashed fairly quickly
when he stepped out of the med unit and found Oz waiting for him on the other
side of the door. His husband looked
dangerously serene leaning against the corridor wall with arms and legs
casually crossed. Oz met his eyes and
slowly straightened from his leaning position.
Cay stayed somewhat rooted to the spot, shame and a fair amount of
wariness keeping him there as Oz approached him and got just a step closer than
personal space deemed appropriate.
“Still mad at me?” Oz asked quietly,
completely taking Cay off-guard, and making his shame build.
“No,” he answered sincerely and took a
breath. “I’m sorry, Oz. I do know why you didn’t want me to volunteer
and I reacted badly.”
Oz’s face relaxed slightly and he dipped
his head to lightly kiss Cay. “I didn’t
mean to make it come out quite so harshly, but I really don’t want you volunteering, Cay. It’s dangerous and unnecessary for you to
go. Am and I would be worried sick.”
Cay flushed and ducked his head, no longer
able to meet Oz’s eyes. His guilt was
increasing significantly.
“Cayson?”
Oz’s deep voice stabbed at his heart and
Cay took a shaky breath. “I did
volunteer,” he barely whispered.
The relaxation Cay had seen on Oz’s face
disappeared immediately. Surprise,
anger, and a strong look of betrayal replaced it and Cay had all he could do to
keep tears from coming to his eyes.
“Oz, I’m sorry!”
Oz took a step back from him. “You volunteered? You’re going despite knowing how I feel and
without even discussing it with Am?”
“No!” Cay answered a bit loudly, drawing
the attention of a couple Travelers down the corridor. “No,” he repeated a bit softer. “Charge Seren and I talked for a while and I
calmed down. Oz, I volunteered because I
was mad, but I realized as I talked with Charge Seren how wrong that was of
me. Actually, I knew it was wrong all
along, but I ignored it until I had gotten past my upset. I rescinded my request and he understood
why. He’s not going to have me a part of
the expedition.”
Oz’s hands were clenched. It wasn’t often he looked that angry, but
even worse was the pure hurt in his eyes.
“Oz, please forgive me,” Cay
requested. “I’m so sorry.”
Oz took a deep breath and let it go slowly
and with a sigh. “I will forgive you…I do forgive you. I just…I’m not sure how to take this. I need some time.”
Ozias had never pulled away from him and
Cay was afraid of that happening more than almost anything. “No, Oz!
Please don’t leave!”
Instantly he found himself pulled into a
breath-taking embrace. “Cayson…Cayson,”
the deep voice murmured above him. “That
wasn’t what I meant. I’m sorry. I just meant that I need some time to come to
grips with what happened today and why, and I need some time to think more rationally
than I feel right now.”
“I am
sorry,” Cay said, his voice muffled against Oz’s shoulder.
“I know, but the implications of what has
happened scares me and I have to figure it out.” He roughly kissed Cay’s temple and released
him from the hug. “But not here in a
public hallway. Let’s go back to our
room, ok?”
Cay nodded and fell into step with Oz,
feeling grateful that while the grip was loose, his husband still held his hand
as they made their way back to their quarters.
Oz had nothing else to say as they walked and it didn’t get any better
when they reached their room. Wordlessly
he brought Cay to the bed with him and urged him to lie down. When Cay complied, he laid down with him and
draped an arm over Cay’s waist, holding the slightly smaller man’s back to his
chest as he silently took the time he said he needed.
Cay did his best not to squirm or speak. He hoped quiet compliance and respect now
would bring Oz into a better frame of mind as well as earn him some brownie
points. More than an hour ticked by
before Oz’s silence broke.
“We need Amrynn here,” he said plainly.
Cay’s heart sunk a little deeper. This meant that Oz saw this as a family issue
and not an incident that could be handled between the two of them. He clearly wasn’t going to decide on a
closure to Cay’s poor choices without Am’s input.
Sitting up on the bed, Oz reached for his
communicator and called Amrynn’s line.
When she didn’t answer, he called the Purifier ward, assuming she was
still there.
“Who is this, please?” he asked when
someone answered. “Backer Vina, is
Charge Amrynn still there? This is her
husband.” He paused, obviously listening
to the other end. “Yes, I realize she’s
testing but I need to talk to her. If
it’s not an emergency or a danger for her to stop what she’s doing, I’d like
you to please let her know I’m calling.”
It was a couple more minutes wait before
Amrynn got on the line.
“Am?
It’s late and I’d like you to come home now. Cay and I need to talk to you.” After a moment, Oz frowned slightly. “Amrynn, you know the standards of whether
you’re truly able to leave or not. Can
you really not stop for the night?”
Another pause and a slight nod from Oz.
“If you can leave in ten minutes, then I
expect you here within twenty. We’ll see
you soon.”
He ended the call in a way that Cay knew
would probably tick Am off. He wasn’t
deliberately cutting her off, but it was clear that Oz believed the
conversation to be done while Cayson thought that Amrynn would probably not
agree.
Cayson was right in his silent
assumption. Not too much later, Amrynn
stalked more than walked into their stateroom and threw a glare at Oz.
“Ozias!
What is so important that I
had to cut off my testing, and why
did you hang up on me? I hate it when
you do that! Just because you had your
say didn’t mean I was done having mine!”
“Amrynn.”
She stopped her angry ranting. Of the three of them, Oz could always say so
much with so little, and he’d voiced a full reproof and a comforting ‘Calm
down. It’s ok.’ with that one word. Amrynn finally took a good look at his face
and then turned her eyes to Cay, easily reading in his expression the disgrace
he was feeling. She sat down on the
room’s loveseat and spoke in a very different tone.
“What’s wrong?”
Oz took hold of Cay’s hand and brought him
over to the sitting area. He settled Cay
on the reclining chair and then sat down by Amrynn. “Cayson, tell her,” he ordered lowly.
Cay hated it when Oz made him explain his
misdeeds. It was easier when Oz would
explain and he could just nod in agreement.
Not being able to look her in the face,
Cay’s eyes stared at his knees as he told Amrynn of the argument he and Oz had
at mid-meal, the volunteering and subsequent talk with Charge Seren, and the
frustrations he’d been feeling lately with being so enclosed.
There was a long and uncomfortable silence
when he finished with an “I’m sorry”. It
was so long that he finally found he couldn’t keep from looking at his wife and
husband anymore and he raised his head to see what they were doing. He was surprised and heartsick to see that Am
had leaned into Oz and was crying slow and silent tears. He immediately went to
his knees in front of her and rested his hands on her thighs.
“Am, I’m so sorry! I promise I’m not going on the mission.”
Amrynn straightened from her lean against
Oz and put her hands over Cay’s. “It’s
not that, Cay,” she said tearily. “I
just hate that I didn’t know how disturbed you were feeling; and I hate that it
seems you couldn’t tell us. We’ve always
told each other everything. When did it
change that you couldn’t talk to Oz and me?”
Cay dropped his head to her lap, his words
muffled against her legs. “I didn’t mean
to hide it, Am. I think it snuck up on
me, but seeing Neveah through the screen when you collected your samples just
made the penned up feeling so much bigger.
Then, when Oz told me I wasn’t to volunteer for the first trek with
Seren, I just got so mad.”
“And you let your anger lead you to do
exactly what Oz told you not to do,” Amrynn said directly, her tears starting
to fade. “That wasn’t right. You know that if any one of us thinks someone
is being unfair, we need to talk about it.
We can’t just go and do whatever we want or defy each other without harming
our marriage.” The tears appeared in her
voice again. “Our family and closest
friends are thousands of miles away.
We’re all each other has, Cay, and I won’t
lose you or Oz. I won’t!”
Cay’s eyes filled but he kept the tears
from falling. “I’m sorry. I won’t do that again. You’re more important. You and Oz are everything to me,” he choked
out.
Amrynn slid from the seat to her knees
with Cay and hugged him. After a couple
minutes, the feel of Oz’s touch helped pull them together and the three of them
squeezed onto the loveseat. Oz had been
quiet throughout the whole exchange, but now his deep voice spoke to Cayson.
“Cay, be honest with us, please. Was part of the problem that Am and I weren’t
available to you to share what was going on?”
Cay tensed and wiped absently at his
face. It took several swallows for him
to find his words. “Maybe,” he hedged
lightly. “It’s not an excuse. You and I were together for meals, but
sometimes I wanted to say something to both of you and…” He stopped, looking thoroughly miserable and
ashamed to finish what was on his mind.
His spouses caught on quickly though.
“But I’ve been glued to my work for the
last week,” Amrynn stated truthfully. “I
know I get too focused sometimes, and I should have seen the signs…”
Her words faded briefly and a slight flush
colored her features.
“No, that’s not right,” she
corrected. “I did see the signs that I was over focused, but I was ignoring
them. I kept telling you two that I
couldn’t leave the lab, but the truth was that I wanted to do the tests myself
and not let others take anything away from me.
I wasn’t being honest with you and I was letting my work become more
important than my marriage. I know we’ve
talked about all of us having a tendency to do this sometimes, but this time it
was my fault and I knew better. I wasn’t
being entirely open with you…or myself…and if I had been then maybe you would
have had the chance to talk with us, Cay.
I’m sorry for not being there,” she apologized sadly.
Am
and Cay were sitting on either side of Oz and he took one of their hands in
each of his. “Are you both being honest
now?” he asked as he squeezed their hands.
Both nodded.
“Anything else to say or add?” he
questioned.
They shook their heads.
“Then judgment is mine this time,” he
determined. Neither one argued with him
and he angled himself slightly towards Cay.
“Cayson, you chose not to share something with us you should have
shared, you defied and disobeyed me, and you risked harm to yourself and our
marriage. Is any of that unfair to say?”
Bright red, Cayson shook his head. “No, Oz.”
Oz squeezed his hand. “Then go to the bed and bend over.”
Wilting slightly, but obeying, Cay moved
across the room to their bed, automatically took down his pants, and bent over
with his elbows and forearms resting on the mattress.
Leaving Amrynn to observe where she was,
Oz extracted their board from the room’s one wardrobe. The long, oval-shaped implement wasn’t overly
big, but the green-tinted wood made from Arlytia’s native Commoner tree was hard
and packed a significant sting. Oz went
to Cay’s left side and placed a hand lightly on the small of his back. He gave no more warning than one tap to Cay’s
bottom before swinging the board down with a fair amount of force. Cay jumped slightly and hissed at the
immediate pain that spread across his cheeks.
The hisses continued with the second and third strokes, but soon turned
to whimpers as Oz steadily paddled him.
Neither Cay nor Oz were given to sobs, but
there was a continuous flow of tears running down Cayson’s face, accompanied by
an occasional yelp as the board hit a particularly sore spot. Cay felt
thoroughly chastised by the time Oz determined a fair punishment had been
dealt.
Cay stayed where he was after the board
stopped landing, knowing he was expected to stay in position until given
permission to rise. He felt Oz’s hand
rub briefly on his back before he heard the quiet voice speak to him.
“Come here, Mieli.”
Cay choked on a quiet cry at the tender
endearment and rose to receive Oz’s hug.
It was tight, almost to the point of cutting off Cay’s breathing, but he
didn’t care. That hug was always Oz’s
silent promise that they were good and back where they should be.
The embrace lasted for several minutes
before Oz bent to replace Cay’s pants and then held a hand out to Amrynn. Their wife hurried over, anxious to be a part
of the reconnection as well. She hugged
Cay first, not as hard as Oz but still a tight and all-encompassing
embrace. She followed it up with a kiss,
first on Cay’s damp cheek and then on his lips; her own way of letting him know
she forgave him completely.
After the kiss, Oz placed a hand on her
shoulder and with gentle force brought her to the edge of the bed. She and Cay both looked confused for a moment
before Oz spoke.
“Amrynn, you weren’t entirely honest with
us and you chose to put work others could have done or helped with over a
lifelong love and commitment. Is that
unfair for me to deduce?”
She swallowed once and glanced at Cay,
quickly putting her hand against his chest to stop the defense he wanted to
give on her behalf. “No, Oz,” she
answered.
Oz looked to Cay. “Is it unfair, Mieli?”
It took a moment, but Cay finally shook
his head. “No,” he decided.
Oz nodded once and a hand on Am’s back had
her bending over the bed as Cay had done.
Oz slipped his fingers in the waistband of her pants and gripped it,
pulling the material tightly against her bottom.
“This is for mixed up priorities and
dishonesty to Cay…”
He brought the board down hard, making her
yelp.
“To me…”
Another firm smack that elicited a squeak.
“And to yourself.”
The third whack was hardest and she let
out a brief sob before Oz pulled her into a hug that matched the one he’d given
Cay. She cried against him briefly and
then turned to get a hug from Cayson as well.
Oz put his arms around both of them and kissed what he could reach of
their faces.
“Are you ok?” he asked, addressing them
both.
“Yes,” they said in
unison.
They said nothing
else, but remained in one another’s arms for a good part of the evening.