SWNOVELS Chapter 22
"Captain we need to speak to you alone." Patrick speaks up as I am still a bit embarrassed and unsure about the very public display of affection we just had.
"Well then we should go in my quarters." he motions for us to go ahead of him so we do as he fallows behind turning the deck over to his next in command.
"What if he can't help?" I whisper still terrified of letting anyone else know.
"We won't know if we don't ask." Patrick says as the door closes behind the captain and he sat in his chair. Patrick pulls a new chair out of the corner for me to sit in. The captain must have pulled it from somewhere else due to the last one being destroyed. Which I feel extremely guilty about for some reason, I mean at least it was only the chair.
"So I guess the romance is out of the bag?" He says looking at us. He has a smile across his lips which comes as a bit of a relief.
"Face it captains I don't think it was that big of a secret to begin with." Patrick says. I look over at him, have I truly been so wrapped up in his charm that I hadn't noticed the rest of the crew knew we had feelings for each other.
"That is an understatement. So what can I do for the two of you?" he asks with a sarcastic grin on his face. I feel even more uncomfortable adding him into the secret but I see no other way at this point.
"Go ahead Laoonica, we have to try." Patrick encourages me softly; he sees I am a bit nervous. I am afraid he has learned to read me like an open book as I am not good at masking anything other than that which activated my powers of chaos.
"Well captain..." I start as I sit properly on the edge of my seat but start messing with my dress. Patrick quickly reaches down to hold one of my hands. I look up at him then back over at the captain. Something inside me tells me this is a bad idea but I guess after all the years of such beliefs being drilled into my head by my father I am going to be scared.
"Go ahead princess I won't bite I promise." I look at him confused. "It's an expression, it means you can trust me. I know that is hard for you with the way you were raised but I won't hurt you." I look at him but my words stick in my throat just as they have so many times when I tried to tell Patrick.
"Well there is a part of the prophecy that I do not completely understand. It's, I guess some sort of riddle and Patrick, and he said you were good with riddles." I say rambling as I speak.
"I am not too bad at them; I do enjoy a good riddle from time to time." The captain's grin holds a softer feeling to it as he is trying to be patient with me seeing how uncomfortable I am in showing trust in people.
"It was only read to me and not explained fully, but it says that I must give myself to a man of my choosing. Something about mind, body, and soul." the captain scratches his head then looks at the both of us. He sat quietly trying to think. I look at the screen to the side then down at my feet remembering my first trip to his office and how tragic it had turned out to be. I can see every detail of the video feed that showed the destruction of my planet and I cringe. I must have squeezed Patrick's hand a bit tight because he pulls away and wrapping it around me instead. My mind goes into a memory of my parent's arguing the day before we left:
"I have to do this we cannot let our baby be a weapon. Despite her powers she has a good heart." My father said.
"That child will be the death of you." My mother said.
"If I don't get her away from here she will be the death of us all." He said as he brushed the side of her face and kissed her on the head. I walked away at this point. In hindsight they were both right. I looked back up at the captain who was still deep in thought.
We sat quietly for several minutes, but upon seeing my face getting more and more upset Patrick speaks up. "Captain we have to figure out what it means. It could be the key to controlling her powers." the captain is very quietly still. I know Patrick doesn't understand why I am upset and I am glad for that fact. He doesn't like the idea of me dwelling on the deaths of those on the ship or on my father. I can't help it as that as well as the fact I may lose myself by doing this. The Captain moves to his computer and starts typing I can tell he had figured it. He seems reluctant to tell Patrick and myself.
"You're stalling, why?" I ask and he looks at me. He shifts his head to one side and looks at me then at Patrick.
"Well from what I get from it, there are several meanings that this riddle can be interpreted as. One is to give yourself to him mentally, emotionally, or physically. The main way to give yourself to another is to um..." he stops talking in mid-sentence and looks at Patrick. I look at Patrick as well.
"What captain? What is it?" Patrick looks at him with a worried look on his face. I am not exactly sure what to make of his face. I look back at the captain and I feel my frustration growing.
"Well it's something you told me would never happen." I look up at Patrick his face turns a little pale in color. He still has the look of worry in his eyes as well. I am completely lost as I look at him he slumps a bit in the chair he is sitting in.
"What Patrick, what is he talking about?" I look at him as he seems frozen in his chair. I reach up and tough his shoulder and he looks over at me.
"Marriage." Patrick blurts out. I look at him a little confused. On my planet marriage was highly celebrated. Although it had actually been a subject we had not spoken of up till now.
"Why would you not want to marry?" I ask as I myself had imagined it at least once or twice, I even had a few versions of dresses I had made just in case I ever did get to fall in love. I had never actually thought that there would ever be a chance for such a thing to happen, and I guess if my father as alive there probably wouldn't have been. I took a breath in as I looked down then back up at the thought of my father.
"My mother and father's marriage was arranged, it was forced onto them and after spending years watching them fight over every little thing I swore I would never get married." I smile a little trying to hold back the fact that I found his fear a tad strange.
"It can't be all that bad, my parents were arranged as well but they got along perfectly as long as..." I Paused as I thought back on all the times my parents actually fought. It had always been centered around me.
"As long as what?" he looks at me. His concern for me brought the color back into his face. It seems to distract him from his own worry.
"As long as I wasn't in the way." I look down at my hands as a tear forms at the corner of my eye. Patrick turns to me reaching over placing one hand on mine and his other on my cheek. He smiles at me to make me smile back. I sort of do but there is a great sadness at the thought of all the trouble I never meant to cause.
"Well I have stuck to my word and it's one of the many things my father holds over me." I stand up and put my hand on his face gently pulling it across his cheek as I walk over to the captain's small window. Something about looking at the stars calms me.
"If you want to be with me, and are willing to do whatever it takes then why would this be so bad?" I ask not looking back at him as I don't want to see the look on his face if it is a bad one.
"I love you Patrick and this seems to be the best answer." I hear his chair scoot away from the desk as he stands stepping up behand me. He put both of his hands around me from behind and I lean into him.
"I love you too and if this is what must happen for us to stay together without interference then I will do it. For you." That did not hold any comfort as I felt he isn't really into it.
"No, it will be for us." I turn to look at him. I expect to see fear in his eye but it had vanished as he holds me in his arms. I cannot believe that I am actually going to do this. It goes against everything my father had said to me, but I hope it will actually work. I also pray that it won't cause me to be some sort of mindless weapon, or slave.
"So I guess we will announce this to the council tomorrow and go from there. Let us hope that this works the way you plan." Patrick turns to the captain who huge grin stretching across his face.
"I do not know what else to do. I pray it will work even if... well hopefully it will satisfy the council then they will not force me to be surrounded by people." I see Patrick look at me in a weird way as I didn't complete the sentence that was about losing myself.
"I never thought I would see the day that Patrick wolf would agree to get married. I don't know rather to laugh, cry, or jump for joy." We look back at the captain who is trying to hold back a laugh.
"You do realize that you are the one who will have to perform the ceremony." Patrick says looking at the captain. This only made him smile bigger if that is possible at this point.
"Yes I know that's the jumping for joy part. I do think you should talk to your father. I am afraid that surprising him in his current condition would kill him." The captain looks at Patrick with concern at that thought. I can see it spread to Patrick.
"Yes I think that perhaps that would be a good ideal." Patrick turn to me and this time the fear is in my face. Being so use to my own father's opinion on me getting married I am not sure how his father will react to the idea of me being with his son. We have known each other for such a small amount of time.
"Well I can get him now before it gets too much later it is almost dinner time." the captain moves over to his computer to contact Patrick's father. Then he turns the big screen on. "Should I leave?" he asks and Patrick nods. The captain heads out the door as a beautiful older woman answered the call.