THE PRISONERS IN THE PALACE

Part Fourteen:

Brianna stayed where she was for the next couple of hours,  her gaze fixed on his face. 

A sudden movement of his fingers in her hand caused her to raise her head quickly. 

His lips moved slightly. He was coming around.

Then Sid sifted past her like some ghostly wind and began to inject something into the

IV line.  Maximus settled back into sleep.

"Why did you do that?" she snapped, getting to her feet to confront him.  "He was just

waking up."

"Can't have that. Not yet," he smiled.

Her mouth curved into something very like a snarl. "Why not?"

He ran his fingers lightly down the IV line, cocking his head, staring at her. "And just

how, my dear, would we explain what...this...is, to him?"

She hadn't thought of that. "But...."

"Only until the nanobots have done their duties and this can be removed."

"How long?"  She reached down, taking Maximus' hand again.

"Probably by morning.  They're speedy little buggers."

"You will send him...us...back...soon, then?"

"I haven't decided yet."  He wanted to make some adjustments in the program first,

needed to make allowances for...changes...that he'd not expected.

"He is aware, you know," she said, "that these places you send him are not...normal."

"It is his working out of such matters that is part of what I want from him."

"What DO you want from him, Sid? How...much...do you want from him?"

"Not less than everything, my dear."

"You...you will let him live?  At the end...you will let him live?"

"Such is my intent," he replied.  Right now, he added in thought. "Much depends on

your cooperation in not revealing to him where or when he actually is."  He lifted a

lock of her hair. "But you know that."

She twisted her head away, pulling her hair from his hand. "Don't do that."

"Is my touch so repulsive, Brianna?"

Her lip curled again.  The thought of the blue nanogoo flowing through his non-human

body WAS repulsive to her.

He read it in her eyes and squared his jaw, lifting his chin, looking at her a long moment,

his expression unreadable. "He will sleep now until dawn.  The med team will check on

his progress then and if the nanobots are finished, he will be allowed to wake.  Do what

you will until then."  He turned and left.

She sat back down on the floor beside the bed, resuming her watch of his face, holding

his hand. It was all the connection she could make with him right now.  One day, yes,

he would recoil from the touch of her hand, but for now she could hold his, could trace

her fingertips along the lines of his palm....  She turned his hand, studying it from all

angles, remembering the things she had seen it doing, remembering these fingers curled

into the dirt of Spanish graves, their trembling scrape of his SPQR tattoo, remembering

their tired flex as he walked toward the gathering Praetorians after the fight with Tigris. 

"I love your hands, Maximus," she murmured, burying her face in his palm.

Sid watched, his lids half-lowered, recalling how she would not permit him to touch her

hair. "What is it, Maximus," he said aloud,  "this power your noble goodness has?"  He

licked his lip, intending to find out.

Brianna sat there the entire night, shifting her position slightly from time to time, dozing

off and on, but not once letting go of his hand, not even when she slept.  Sid came and

went silently several times, always only standing a few feet away, watching, unseen.  He

knew much of her history, had encountered her more than once as adversary in the field. 

She had nearly ruined his retrieval of John Biebe.  He knew that she had been a loner all
her life, had no real friends, no family. He had not thought her capable of the devotion he

now saw her pouring out on the General. Why, he wondered, did he find that vaguely... disturbing?

She had tried to kill him. He had tried to return the favor. Not to mention his recent sale

of her into slavery. He smiled, remembering carrying her rolled inside the carpet through

the back streets of Zucchabar. He had always thought her beautiful, had always admired

her endurance, her skills with weapons...and he'd always thought he'd kill the woman

some day. 

He looked at his hand, the sensors in his fingers remembering the feel of her hair.  He

wanted to feel it again. Gripping his right hand tightly with his left, his shoulders some-

what hunched, he went back to his computer room.

Early in the morning one of Sid's staff doctors came, asking her to move aside a bit. 

She stood, her muscles protesting after the long night,  and stepped away just enough to

give him room, watching intently as he began to unwrap the bandages on Maximus' arm. 

It was the first time she'd seen the wound in bright light. It ran for six inches down the

inside of his forearm.  Even though it had healed so that there remained at this point a
freshly pink scar, she still winced at the sight of it.  Yes, he could have easily bled to death

from that. If she had not been able to lift the slab that had pinned it, he would have,

without doubt, he would have. But there would have been no slab to move, no wound to

bleed, had she not caused his fall. She saw again the startled widening of his eyes when

he realized he could not stop himself.  He had not cried out, though. She remembered no

cry. Why? Why had he fallen silently?

Satisfied with the arm, the doctor moved on to Maximus' temple, removing the bandage

there.  One by one he opened the closed lids, shining a light into his eyes, murmuring

with approval as he let them close again. Now he unlatched his case and brought out a

small, square implement with which he scanned various parts of Maximus' body.

"He...he is all right?" she asked as the doctor straightened, replacing the device in his

bag.

"He is," the doctor smiled, "ribs, pelvis, spleen...all healed."

Spleen? Sid had not mentioned that. "The IV? It can be removed, then?"

He nodded and set about doing that very thing, then with a nod of acknowledgement of

her presence, he gathered up all the medical equipment and left the room.

She knelt quickly beside the bed, her hands seeking his arm. Her fingertips followed the

line of the scar, amazed at how such a deep wound could have healed  in a matter of

hours.  She had to look hard to find any remaining traces of the bruising on his face or

chest.  "Thank God," she murmured gratefully.

"Actually, my dear, you can thank me."  Sid had approached, unnoticed, behind her.

"I'm the one who invented the nanobot technology."

"You didn't tell me about his spleen," she accused.

He smiled. "There are any number of things I do not tell you about, Brianna."

He leaned past her, touching Maximus' temple. "Wonderful things, nanobots," he

commented.

"What now, Sid?"

"Perhaps he will wish to finish his pear?  I have no idea."

"Smart ass," she said under her breath.

"You're welcome," he rejoined.

"You are not," she replied harshly. Maximus' head turned slightly. "He's waking up."

She glared at Sid. "Don't you think you should go now?"

"Until later, then," Sid said. "It's been such a pleasure chatting with you."  He was used

to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.  He went out of his way to generate it. It

was who he was, how he was, all he knew. Why, then, had her arrows begun to...prick?

Maximus let out several sighing breaths, then opened his eyes. He lay there quietly,

taking in his surroundings, the room, Brianna holding his hand. "So," he said, stopping

to lick his dry lips, "we are back where we began."  He had awakened just so, in this

place, with her beside his bed.

"Seems to be a habit with us," she said, blinking back tears. "But you are all right, my dar...Maximus. You are all right."

"My arm?" He suddenly recalled the pain of wrenching it free from under the slab.

"It's fine, too, Maximus. It's nearly healed."

"How...? That long? I have been unconscious that long?"

"No, no...it was but yesterday."

"That cannot be," he said, lifting it to examine the scar. "This is weeks of healing."

"It can be, Maximus. You know things are not as they seem in this place."

"But...how?"

"A doctor came, gave you special medicine.  I don't understand it myself."

He touched the scar with his left hand then let it fall to his side. His eyes latched onto

her face and he leaned up, supporting himself on his right elbow. "You, " he began, his

voice nearly choked, "you were...."

"I'm sorry, Maximus."  She bowed her head that he might not see her face, but he sat

further up, lifting her chin with his hand.  She closed her eyes, her lashes starred with

tears.

Slowly, he ran a fingertip down the side of her face. "You wished to leave me so...

completely?  There on the ledge?"

She winced at his words, opening her eyes just slightly.  "No, Maximus. I wish never to

leave you.  It was...myself...I was trying to leave."  A large tear rolled down her cheek.

He blocked its path with his finger and it welled over onto his hand.

"I do not understand," he whispered, looking at the tear.

"I know," she breathed. "Oh, God, I do know."

She reached out then, touching his temple. "You truly feel all right?"

"My body seems to be fine," he smiled. "It's my mind that's a bit hazy still."

Why did some words trigger so vividly for her certain scenes from Gladiator? Suddenly

her inner vision was filled with Commodus being hazy on who had won the battle of

Carthage.  She shook her head, trying to clear the sight of the young emperor from it.

"Is something the matter?" he asked quickly.

"No," she replied, attempting a smile. "Just a sudden memory."

"Not a good one?"

"Of Commodus," she replied.

"You saw him?"  His face had settled into grimmer lines.

"Only in the Colosseum, in his box, during your battles."

"You saw both of those?"

Indeed, she had seen all three and was forever grateful that he had no present experience

of the third. "I did," she nodded.

He looked around the room, wondering again if this were part of Commodus' palace.

"Do you know how we came to  be back in this place?"

"I was sitting near you, your head in my lap, and then suddenly I was here, in this room

again, dressed once more in this blue."

"And me?"

"You were here, too, only your injuries had come through with you."

"Through?"

She sighed. Nearly everything he said to her seemed to come in the form of a question. 

She understood that, though. In a place where there were no real answers, questions

were all he had.  "Through whatever it is that takes us from place to place.  That's all

I mean."

"Ah," he said, leaning back a bit and starting to push back the covers until he discovered

he was unclothed.  "My tunic?" His eyes scanned the room, looking for it, locating it on

a table across the room.

Immediately she went to fetch it for him, picking up his wide belt as well.  Handing them

to him, she stepped back. "I'll be in my room."

He rose, letting the short blue tunic slide over his head, then fastening the leather belt. 

His boots sat just past the foot of the bed, and he put those on, too, feeling much more

himself now he was dressed.  He looked again at the long scar on his arm.  Very, very...

strange. Flexing his fingers, he tested the muscles.  Everything was fine, nothing hurt. 

Well, it was what it was and he was grateful for it no matter how it had come about. 

He walked to Brianna's doorway, standing there a moment, watching her as she brushed

her hair, her face calm, composed. He knew, though, that she carried within some secret

pain that threatened her.  Give him time. He would discover its source.

"Beautiful," he said softly.  She turned her head in his direction.  "You," he said,

walking toward where she sat. "Very beautiful."

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