To Love a Stray Ch. 18

"I'll go Sam," Malcolm calls.

"Thanks Malcolm," Sam replies.

"Only doing it because it's The Stray," Malcolm says gruffly. I know the exchange should worry me but I am too relaxed to give it a second thought and when a hand brushes the hair back off my face I can barely open my eyes.

"You still awake Rosy?" Sam asks.

"Hmmm," I murmur and turn my face into the pressure of his hand, his fingers brush my cheek and I smile slightly.

"I think Marissa is bringing your meal over, you are hungry aren't you?" Sam urges me.

"Need to eat for the baby," I manage before yawning.

"That's right, you need to eat." Sam tells me. I am finally starting to surface from the floating sea of indifference but it still clings tenaciously.

"I need to eat," I repeat and open my eyes.

Sam is standing beside the bed clearing off the bedside unit while Kurt sits in a chair on the far side of the room not far from the door. I become aware of footsteps in the sunroom and look towards the door relieved when Marissa walks in carrying a tray.

"Good, you're awake. I cooked some fresh fish and made a warm beetroot and avocado salad, I know it sounds strange but the flavours go together really well," Marissa reassures me as she places the tray of food on the unit Sam had just cleared.

"Thanks, I'm sure I'll enjoy the fish." I tell her as I lift my head slightly to survey the bed.

"I'll help you sit up and then put pillows behind you," Sam tells me.

"If you lift your sister up I'll put pillows behind her until she's comfortable." Kurt suggests.

"Yeah, that would be much easier," Sam agrees readily. When he eases me into a sitting position Kurt slips several pillows behind me, finally I am sitting up comfortably propped up by pillows.

"I'll sit here and wait for the tray," Marissa says lightly.

"One of the others can take the tray back but you are welcome to visit with Rosy if you like," Sam tells her respectfully. He picks up my fork, begins to break the fish into flakes, and urges me to eat, keeping me awake when I would doze off again. I eat all I can and Marissa leaves with the tray apparently happy with the amount I have eaten. I rest back against the pillows swimming in the hazy state halfway between sleep and wakefulness.

"Rosy. You awake still?" Sam asks quietly.

"Yeah, my head is starting to clear more," I admit as I open my eyes lazily.

"Good," Sam says before shutting the bedroom door, locking it and returning to sit in the chair by the bed. He fiddles with the radio turning it on and finding an all music station.

"You need to start thinking on what you are going to do. Dwayne has already offered to let you stay on here, he promised he'd make Micah conform and leave you alone. Ray wants to get you out of here. He believes you should have a chance for a new start. To leave all this trouble behind you," Kurt says gently and I glance between my brothers taking in the sober expressions on their faces.

"Stay somewhere temporarily, with Ray's sister and her husband or with my wife and I. Then when you have your kitt, Ray thinks you should send it back here to Marissa to be raised ..."

"No. I will not have my baby taken from me! I won't," I say frantically as I struggle to sit up more. Sam is pushing me back against the pillows and Kurt moves to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Calm down, calm down, Mitchell and I will be there to support you in whatever choice you make," Sam promises and I look up at him with worry.

"I will support any choice you make as well," Kurt tells me.

"You won't let them take my baby?" I ask fearfully. I have lost Micah, someone I believed I could be safe with. Please don't say I'll loose my baby too!

"No we won't, they'd have to kill us to do it." Kurt cuts in telling me seriously. "But there is a question I want you to answer, or if you don't have an answer I want you think seriously about it ... is there any way the relationship with Micah can be repaired. Now think more than a moment before you answer," Kurt cuts me off as I open my mouth to protest.

"I been thinking about what happened, and it didn't make sense until Mitchell pointed it out ... no let me explain," Sam orders as I go to interrupt. "If Micah had believed you had revealed our existence to a human he wouldn't have just threatened you. He would have dished out whatever punishment there and then, on the spot. I think it was the ... you talking to your ex-lover that done it. Micah could thrash another tom within an inch of his life, intimidate a human man but what can he do against a woman?"

"Our kind doesn't harm females. Micah is threatened and intimidated by your communicating with her. That is something he hasn't felt in a good while if ever ... I doubt he even realises what has him so mad. He did not give you the phone back and order you to break contact with her - he kept it so you had no choice, you couldn't choose her over him." Sam says and pauses a moment.

"I know when I was with Lotty it nearly drove me insane every time I suspected she had been around some tom. I broke Malcolm's jaw over him taking a steak I wanted at lunch the day after I walked in on him and Lotty. Well I thought it was the steak at the time, but several months later I realised it was the fact he took something that I felt belonged to me," Sam tells me with a rueful smile. "Werecats don't easily share their mate, some Alphas will let their Queen have a consort but he is generally of the Alpha's choosing. And Micah has let it slip he was thrilled you weren't promiscuous when you are about to come into heat like most she-kitts. "

I am silent as I try to make sense of what Sam has just told me but finally I just close my eyes and turn my head away too fuzzy minded to concentrate on my thoughts. I find myself dozing on and off, my thoughts running in fragments as I sleep and wake. Finally, I wake more fully as the door opens and footsteps approach the bed, I turn my head to see Doc and Mitchell come in and manage a slight smile.

"Still awake I see," Doc comments as he sits in the chair Sam had been in.

"Rosy has been drifting in and out of sleep. She had a normal sized meal, hasn't complained of any pain. Well hasn't mentioned any," Sam tells him.

"Any pain?" Doc asks.

"Only if I try to move and then it's just mainly sore and it's the movement that hurts," I answer with a lot of effort to think.

"No Braxton-hicks?" Doc asks. "Cramp like pains?"

"None that I've noticed and I usually notice it when my belly gets tight, it's annoying." I say with a frown as my mind wants to return to the lovely comfort of limbo.

"That's good isn't it Doc?" Mitchell asks anxiously.

"Very good. Hopefully it means nothing more than strained muscles," Doc pauses as he glances at his watch.

A loud knock at the door interrupts and Sam moves over to the door. "Who is it?" He demands.

"It's Dwayne. I was hoping I could find out how Rosy and the kitt are doing," Dwayne answers through the shut door.

"Rosy do you mind if I open the door so Dwayne can look in?" Sam asks.

"I suppose not," I answer and a moment later Sam opens the door and leaves it open before returning to my side.

"There doesn't appear to be any sign of complications with the pregnancy after her fall," Doc says with a slight motion towards the small mound that is the swell of my stomach.

"And Rosy will be fine as well?" Dwayne asks with a glance my way.

"The medication I gave her for pain is making her drowsy, but other than that she's fine." Doc tells Dwayne.

"So she is resting? No reason to believe there is anything wrong?" Dwayne states.

"Yes and I think it is time most of us left so Rosy can do exactly that," Doc says firmly. "Rosy? Is it alright with you if I come back later to give you more pain medication?"

"It won't affect the baby?" I ask as I look down at my heavily strapped wrist, then back up at his face.

"Might make him sleepy and not move as much but that's all. No lasting effects," Doc tells me and I give a faint nod before closing my eyes and relaxing.

"Doc should Rosy eat before you give her the next needle?" Sam asks.

"It would be a good idea because she'll most likely sleep straight through the night," Doc says.

"I'll tell Marissa, I know she will want to cook the food for Rosy," Dwayne says.

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Hi Readers

the next chapter will probably take a month to post. Due to the constant requests for descriptions of characters I am working in an extra chapter or two that contain descriptions of most, if not all of the characters

Mygypsy